Stephens Upgrades Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) to Overweight

Stephens upgraded shares of Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a report published on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $123.00 price objective on the stock, up from their prior price objective of $86.00.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on EXE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Chesapeake Energy from $115.00 to $114.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $119.00 to $133.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Raymond James began coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. They issued a “strong-buy” rating and a $135.00 price target for the company. Finally, Scotiabank raised Chesapeake Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $105.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $119.12.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Performance

NASDAQ:EXE opened at $109.25 on Tuesday. Chesapeake Energy has a fifty-two week low of $81.66 and a fifty-two week high of $109.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.00 and a quick ratio of 2.00. The business’s 50 day moving average is $103.54. The stock has a market cap of $25.42 billion, a PE ratio of 67.44 and a beta of 0.53.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Chesapeake Energy had a return on equity of 2.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. Research analysts forecast that Chesapeake Energy will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Chesapeake Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.575 per share. This represents a $2.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.11%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. Chesapeake Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -55.83%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Domenic J. Dell’osso, Jr. acquired 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $99.50 per share, for a total transaction of $248,750.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 107,845 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,730,577.50. The trade was a 2.37 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 58.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Chesapeake Energy Company Profile

Expand Energy Corporation is an independent natural gas producer principally in the United States. Expand Energy Corporation, formerly known as Chesapeake Energy Corporation, is based in OKLAHOMA CITY.