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

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) had its price objective increased by Wells Fargo & Company from $105.00 to $107.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

EXE has been the topic of several other research reports. Scotiabank raised Chesapeake Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $105.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Stephens raised Chesapeake Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $86.00 to $123.00 in a report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $116.00 price target on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a research report on Friday, January 31st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $121.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Chesapeake Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $119.12.

Chesapeake Energy Price Performance

Chesapeake Energy stock opened at $109.25 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $103.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 67.44 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a current ratio of 2.00. Chesapeake Energy has a 1-year low of $81.66 and a 1-year high of $109.63.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. Chesapeake Energy had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 2.74%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Chesapeake Energy will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Chesapeake Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.575 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $2.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.11%. Chesapeake Energy’s payout ratio is currently -55.83%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Domenic J. Dell’osso, Jr. bought 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $99.50 per share, with a total value of $248,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 107,845 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,730,577.50. This represents a 2.37 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 58.00% of the company’s stock.

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.