Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Sets New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:EXE) shares reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $105.33 and last traded at $105.13, with a volume of 132067 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $104.12.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on EXE. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $93.00 price target on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a research note on Wednesday. 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 target on the stock. Mizuho raised 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. Roth Capital upgraded shares of Chesapeake Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a research report on Monday, October 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $114.00 price objective for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $113.50.

Chesapeake Energy Trading Up 1.1 %

The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $97.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.96 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a quick ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last announced its 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. The business had revenue of $648.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $708.98 million. Chesapeake Energy had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 2.74%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 57.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.09 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Chesapeake Energy Corporation will post 0.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Chesapeake Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a $0.575 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $2.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.19%. Chesapeake Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 141.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Chesapeake Energy

In related news, Director Catherine A. Kehr sold 43,623 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now directly owns 5,201 shares in the company, valued at $517,915.58. The trade was a 89.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 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.