Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Given New $100.00 Price Target at Wells Fargo & Company

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

EXE has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $102.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Roth Capital raised shares of Chesapeake Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. 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 report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Chesapeake Energy currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $101.71.

Chesapeake Energy Price Performance

NASDAQ:EXE opened at $98.87 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $22.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.03 and a beta of 0.46. 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 has a fifty-two week low of $69.12 and a fifty-two week high of $101.27.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.01 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $648.00 million during 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 57.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.09 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Chesapeake Energy will post 0.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Chesapeake Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th will be issued a $0.575 dividend. This represents a $2.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 14th. Chesapeake Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 141.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Catherine A. Kehr sold 43,623 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.58, for a total value of $4,343,978.34. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,201 shares in the company, 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. 0.17% of the stock is 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.