Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Stock Rating Upgraded by UBS Group

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) was upgraded by stock analysts at UBS Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm presently has a $123.00 target price on the stock, up from their prior target price of $94.00. UBS Group’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 26.78% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Stephens raised their price objective on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Roth Capital raised Chesapeake Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Chesapeake Energy from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Chesapeake Energy from $102.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a research note on Monday, October 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $114.00 target price for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $109.14.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Performance

Chesapeake Energy stock opened at $97.02 on Monday. Chesapeake Energy has a fifty-two week low of $69.12 and a fifty-two week high of $101.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.89 and a beta of 0.52. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $91.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.00 and a quick ratio of 2.00.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Catherine A. Kehr sold 43,623 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.58, for a total transaction of $4,343,978.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $517,915.58. This represents a 89.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 58.00% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.