Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Reaches New 12-Month High – What’s Next?

Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:EXE) shares reached a new 52-week high on Monday . The stock traded as high as $102.49 and last traded at $102.19, with a volume of 206249 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $100.01.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. 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 research note on Friday, November 22nd. Mizuho boosted their price objective 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. UBS Group upgraded Chesapeake Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $94.00 to $123.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Chesapeake Energy from $83.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock 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 report on Friday, September 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Chesapeake Energy currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $111.71.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Performance

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $95.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a current ratio of 2.00. The firm has a market cap of $23.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.38 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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.01 by $0.15. Chesapeake Energy had a return on equity of 2.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. The business had revenue of $648.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $708.98 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.09 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 57.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Chesapeake Energy Corporation will post 0.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Chesapeake Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a $0.575 dividend. 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 2.24%. Chesapeake Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 141.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Catherine A. Kehr sold 43,623 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.58, for a total transaction of $4,343,978.34. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $517,915.58. This trade represents a 89.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 58.00% of the stock is 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.