Shares of Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:EXE - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the eight research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $111.71.
A number of research firms recently commented on EXE. Citigroup lifted their price target on Chesapeake Energy from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Bank of America started coverage on Chesapeake Energy in a research report on Monday, October 28th. They set a "buy" rating and a $114.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group upgraded shares of Chesapeake Energy from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $94.00 to $123.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $83.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Roth Capital upgraded Chesapeake Energy to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th.
Get Our Latest Report on Chesapeake Energy
Shares of NASDAQ EXE opened at $94.32 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Chesapeake Energy has a fifty-two week low of $69.12 and a fifty-two week high of $101.27. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $92.90. The firm has a market cap of $21.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.22 and a beta of 0.52.
Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $648.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $708.98 million. Chesapeake Energy had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 2.74%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 57.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.09 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Chesapeake Energy will post 0.86 earnings per share for the current year.
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were issued a dividend of $0.575 per share. 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 2.44%. Chesapeake Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 141.98%.
In related 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 value of $4,343,978.34. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the company's stock.
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.
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