Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Trading 2.8% Higher – Should You Buy?

Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:EXE)’s stock price rose 2.8% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $99.90 and last traded at $99.35. Approximately 407,893 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 2,115,166 shares. The stock had previously closed at $96.61.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on EXE shares. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a research note on Monday, October 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $114.00 target price for the company. Mizuho upped their price objective on Chesapeake Energy from $110.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Chesapeake Energy from $83.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Stephens boosted their target price 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. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Chesapeake Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $111.71.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $23.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.45 and a beta of 0.52. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $94.66. 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 (NASDAQ:EXE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $648.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $708.98 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.09 EPS. Chesapeake Energy’s quarterly revenue was down 57.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Chesapeake Energy Corporation will post 0.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Chesapeake Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a $0.575 dividend. This represents a $2.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. Chesapeake Energy’s payout ratio is 141.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Chesapeake Energy news, Director Catherine A. Kehr sold 43,623 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 58.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.