Chesapeake Energy Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:EXE)

Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:EXE) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors bought 4,961 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 33% compared to the average daily volume of 3,729 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on EXE shares. Stephens raised their price target on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $90.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group upped their price target on Chesapeake Energy from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Bank of America initiated coverage on Chesapeake Energy in a research report on Monday, October 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $114.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on Chesapeake Energy from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Chesapeake Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $99.20.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Performance

EXE traded up $2.33 on Wednesday, reaching $98.04. 1,105,714 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,061,941. 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 stock has a market cap of $22.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.08 and a beta of 0.46. Chesapeake Energy has a fifty-two week low of $69.12 and a fifty-two week high of $99.49.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $648.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $708.98 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.09 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 57.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Chesapeake Energy will post 0.86 EPS for the current year.

Chesapeake Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.575 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $2.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.35%. Chesapeake Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 141.98%.

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.