Wells Fargo & Company Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Stock

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) had its price target boosted by Wells Fargo & Company from $83.00 to $100.00 in a research note released on Monday,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target 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. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $90.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Roth Capital raised shares of Chesapeake Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Chesapeake Energy from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on Chesapeake Energy from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $101.71.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Performance

Shares of EXE stock opened at $98.75 on Monday. Chesapeake Energy has a 52-week low of $69.12 and a 52-week high of $101.27. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $90.27. 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 company has a market cap of $22.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 60.96 and a beta of 0.46.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $648.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $708.98 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.09 earnings per share. Chesapeake Energy’s revenue was down 57.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Chesapeake Energy will post 0.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Chesapeake Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th will be given a $0.575 dividend. This represents a $2.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.33%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 14th. Chesapeake Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 141.98%.

Insider Activity at Chesapeake Energy

In other Chesapeake Energy news, Director Catherine A. Kehr sold 43,623 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were 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 directly owns 5,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $517,915.58. This trade represents a 89.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 58.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.