Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Earns Buy Rating from Benchmark

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Benchmark in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $93.00 price target on the stock. Benchmark’s price target indicates a potential downside of 13.71% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on EXE. Mizuho increased their price target on Chesapeake Energy from $110.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a report on Monday, October 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $114.00 target price for the company. Citigroup upped their price objective on Chesapeake Energy from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Chesapeake Energy from $109.00 to $133.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Chesapeake Energy in a research note on Friday, January 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $127.00 price objective on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $114.73.

Chesapeake Energy Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EXE opened at $107.78 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.91 billion, a PE ratio of 66.53 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.00 and a quick ratio of 2.00. The company’s 50-day moving average is $98.54. Chesapeake Energy has a 1 year low of $69.12 and a 1 year high of $108.83.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $648.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $708.98 million. Chesapeake Energy had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 2.74%. Chesapeake Energy’s revenue for the quarter was down 57.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.09 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Chesapeake Energy will post 0.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Catherine A. Kehr sold 43,623 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

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.