Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) in a research report sent to investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage issued an overweight rating and a $127.00 target price on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on the company. Bank of America initiated coverage on Chesapeake Energy in a research note on Monday, October 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $114.00 price target for the company. Citigroup raised their target price on Chesapeake Energy from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Mizuho boosted 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. Roth Capital upgraded shares of Chesapeake Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $102.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $113.63.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Performance

Shares of EXE opened at $102.15 on Friday. Chesapeake Energy has a one year low of $69.12 and a one year high of $105.00. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $97.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.00 and a quick ratio of 2.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.06 and a beta of 0.52.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.16 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%. Chesapeake Energy’s quarterly revenue was down 57.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.09 EPS. Analysts forecast that Chesapeake Energy will post 0.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Chesapeake Energy Dividend Announcement

The company 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 2.25%. Chesapeake Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 141.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Catherine A. Kehr sold 43,623 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $517,915.58. This represents a 89.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 58.00% of the company’s stock.

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.