Morgan Stanley Initiates Coverage on Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE)

Equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) in a report released on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage set an “overweight” rating and a $127.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 24.33% from the company’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on EXE. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a research report on Monday, October 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $114.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $102.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group raised Chesapeake Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $94.00 to $123.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup increased their price target on Chesapeake Energy from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Stephens boosted 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $113.63.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of EXE stock opened at $102.15 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $97.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a current ratio of 2.00. The stock has a market cap of $23.61 billion, a PE ratio of 63.06 and a beta of 0.52. Chesapeake Energy has a 52 week low of $69.12 and a 52 week high of $105.00.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last announced its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $648.00 million for 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 business’s revenue was down 57.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.09 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Chesapeake Energy will post 0.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Catherine A. Kehr sold 43,623 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were 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 approximately $517,915.58. This represents a 89.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 58.00% of the stock is currently 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.