Brokerages Set Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:EXE) PT at $111.71

Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:EXE) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $111.71.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on EXE. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Chesapeake Energy from $83.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Chesapeake Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $94.00 to $123.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Roth Capital raised shares of Chesapeake Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $110.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Stephens upped their price objective on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th.

Chesapeake Energy Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:EXE opened at $97.47 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.00 and a quick ratio of 2.00. Chesapeake Energy has a 1-year low of $69.12 and a 1-year high of $101.27. The company has a market cap of $22.53 billion, a PE ratio of 60.17 and a beta of 0.52. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $93.25.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last posted 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 net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 2.74%. The business had revenue of $648.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $708.98 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.09 earnings per share. Chesapeake Energy’s revenue for the quarter was down 57.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Chesapeake Energy will post 0.86 EPS for the current year.

Chesapeake Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a $0.575 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $2.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.36%. Chesapeake Energy’s payout ratio is 141.98%.

Insider Activity at Chesapeake Energy

In other Chesapeake Energy news, Director Catherine A. Kehr sold 43,623 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.58, for a total transaction of $4,343,978.34. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,201 shares in the company, valued at $517,915.58. This represents a 89.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 58.00% 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.