Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Raised to “Overweight” at Stephens

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) was upgraded by equities researchers at Stephens from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm presently has a $123.00 price objective on the stock, up from their previous price objective of $86.00. Stephens’ target price would suggest a potential upside of 13.30% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on EXE. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Chesapeake Energy in a research note on Friday, January 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $121.00 target price on the stock. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $93.00 target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $116.00 target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Mizuho lifted their price target on Chesapeake Energy from $128.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Chesapeake Energy from $119.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Four investment 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Chesapeake Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $119.00.

Chesapeake Energy Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of EXE opened at $108.56 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $25.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 67.01 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a current ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $103.42. Chesapeake Energy has a 12-month low of $81.66 and a 12-month high of $109.47.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. Chesapeake Energy had a return on equity of 2.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. As a group, analysts predict that Chesapeake Energy will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Chesapeake Energy

In other news, CEO Domenic J. Dell’osso, Jr. purchased 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $99.50 per share, with a total value of $248,750.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 107,845 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,730,577.50. This represents a 2.37 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 58.00% of the company’s stock.

About Chesapeake Energy

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.