Royal Bank of Canada Boosts Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Price Target to $116.00

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) had its price objective lifted by Royal Bank of Canada from $102.00 to $116.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on EXE. Roth Capital upgraded Chesapeake Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Bank of America initiated coverage on Chesapeake Energy in a research report on Monday, October 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $114.00 price objective for the company. Stephens raised their price objective on Chesapeake Energy from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho lifted their price target on Chesapeake Energy from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Chesapeake Energy from $90.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $101.71.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Performance

EXE opened at $98.87 on Friday. Chesapeake Energy has a 1-year low of $69.12 and a 1-year high of $101.27. 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 has a market capitalization of $22.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 61.73 and a beta of 0.46.

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

Chesapeake Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th will be issued a $0.575 dividend. This represents a $2.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 14th. Chesapeake Energy’s payout ratio is currently 141.98%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Catherine A. Kehr sold 43,623 shares of the company’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 sale, the director now owns 5,201 shares in the company, valued at $517,915.58. This represents a 89.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.