Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Earns Overweight Rating from Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Stock analysts at Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) in a note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm set an “overweight” rating and a $127.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target suggests a potential upside of 23.40% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on EXE. Mizuho lifted their target price on Chesapeake Energy from $110.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Stephens lifted their price objective on Chesapeake Energy from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Roth Capital upgraded shares of Chesapeake Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $83.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Chesapeake Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $94.00 to $123.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Chesapeake Energy currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $113.63.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of Chesapeake Energy stock opened at $102.92 on Friday. Chesapeake Energy has a 52 week low of $69.12 and a 52 week high of $104.13. The company has a market cap of $23.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.53 and a beta of 0.52. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $96.92. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $648.00 million during 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was down 57.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.09 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Chesapeake Energy will post 0.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Chesapeake Energy

In other news, Director Catherine A. Kehr sold 43,623 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 5,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $517,915.58. This trade represents a 89.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 58.00% 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.