Bank of America Initiates Coverage on Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE)

Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) in a research note released on Monday morning, StockNewsAPI reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $114.00 price objective on the stock.

A number of other research firms have also commented on EXE. Stephens upped their price objective on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Roth Capital upgraded Chesapeake Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup raised their target price on Chesapeake Energy from $90.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $99.20.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:EXE opened at $84.72 on Monday. Chesapeake Energy has a 52 week low of $69.12 and a 52 week high of $93.58. The company has a current ratio of 2.16, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a market capitalization of $11.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.00 and a beta of 0.47.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The company reported $0.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.02 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $378.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $556.35 million. Chesapeake Energy had a net margin of 8.68% and a return on equity of 4.00%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Chesapeake Energy will post 1.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Chesapeake Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.575 per share. This represents a $2.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 14th. Chesapeake Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 77.70%.

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.