Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Coverage Initiated at Morgan Stanley

Research analysts at Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) in a research report issued on Friday, MarketBeat reports. The firm set an “overweight” rating and a $127.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target indicates a potential upside of 24.33% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on EXE. Citigroup lifted their target price on Chesapeake Energy from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Bank of America initiated coverage on Chesapeake Energy in a report on Monday, October 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $114.00 target price for the company. Roth Capital raised Chesapeake Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Stephens boosted their price target on Chesapeake Energy from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group raised Chesapeake Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $94.00 to $123.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $113.63.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Performance

Shares of EXE stock opened at $102.15 on Friday. Chesapeake Energy has a fifty-two week low of $69.12 and a fifty-two week high of $105.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.06 and a beta of 0.52. 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 simple moving average is $97.29.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.01 by $0.15. Chesapeake Energy had a return on equity of 2.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. The business had revenue of $648.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $708.98 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.09 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 57.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Chesapeake Energy will post 0.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Catherine A. Kehr sold 43,623 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.58, for a total value of $4,343,978.34. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,201 shares in the company, valued at $517,915.58. The trade was a 89.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 58.00% of the company’s stock.

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.