Financial Comparison: Chesapeake Energy (EXE) versus Its Peers

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) is one of 286 publicly-traded companies in the “Crude petroleum & natural gas” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Chesapeake Energy to related businesses based on the strength of its valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability and institutional ownership.

Dividends

Chesapeake Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Chesapeake Energy pays out 142.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Crude petroleum & natural gas” companies pay a dividend yield of 10.3% and pay out 115.6% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Chesapeake Energy lags its competitors as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Chesapeake Energy and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Chesapeake Energy	0	2	3	1	2.83
Chesapeake Energy Competitors	2168	11672	16243	628	2.50

Chesapeake Energy currently has a consensus target price of $99.20, indicating a potential upside of 0.96%. As a group, “Crude petroleum & natural gas” companies have a potential upside of 19.76%. Given Chesapeake Energy’s competitors higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Chesapeake Energy has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Chesapeake Energy and its competitors revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Chesapeake Energy	$4.03 billion	$2.42 billion	60.65
Chesapeake Energy Competitors	$714.42 billion	$1.07 billion	17.17

Chesapeake Energy’s competitors have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Chesapeake Energy. Chesapeake Energy is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Chesapeake Energy and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Chesapeake Energy	6.07%	2.74%	2.08%
Chesapeake Energy Competitors	-2.98%	2.58%	6.48%

Volatility & Risk

Chesapeake Energy has a beta of 0.46, meaning that its stock price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Chesapeake Energy’s competitors have a beta of -14.07, meaning that their average stock price is 1,507% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

97.9% of Chesapeake Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.9% of shares of all “Crude petroleum & natural gas” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Chesapeake Energy shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 9.1% of shares of all “Crude petroleum & natural gas” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Chesapeake Energy beats its competitors on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

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.