Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Reaches New 52-Week High on Analyst Upgrade

Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:EXE) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $105.00 to $107.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Chesapeake Energy traded as high as $109.62 and last traded at $109.34, with a volume of 3109566 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $108.56.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on EXE. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $119.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Scotiabank raised shares of Chesapeake Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $105.00 to $130.00 in a report on Friday, January 17th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a research note on Friday, January 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $127.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $93.00 target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Chesapeake Energy has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $119.12.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Domenic J. Dell’osso, Jr. acquired 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $99.50 per share, for a total transaction of $248,750.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 107,845 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,730,577.50. This represents a 2.37 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 58.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a market cap of $24.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.27 and a beta of 0.53. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $103.65.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. Chesapeake Energy had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 2.74%. The business had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Chesapeake Energy Corporation will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Chesapeake Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.575 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $2.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.14%. Chesapeake Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -55.83%.

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.