Morgan Stanley Initiates Coverage on Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE)

Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) in a research note published on Friday, Marketbeat reports. The firm issued an overweight rating and a $127.00 price objective on the stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on EXE. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective 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. Mizuho increased their price objective on Chesapeake Energy from $110.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Roth Capital upgraded Chesapeake Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group upgraded Chesapeake Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $94.00 to $123.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Stephens boosted their price objective on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $113.63.

Chesapeake Energy Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ 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 has a 50-day moving average price of $97.29. The company has a quick ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.06 and a beta of 0.52.

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

Chesapeake Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a dividend of $0.575 per share. This represents a $2.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. Chesapeake Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 141.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Chesapeake Energy

In other Chesapeake Energy 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $517,915.58. This represents a 89.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 58.00% of the company’s stock.

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.