Morgan Stanley Increases Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Price Target to $154.00

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) had its target price lifted by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $137.00 to $154.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 38.81% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the company. Stephens raised Chesapeake Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $86.00 to $123.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $116.00 price objective on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Chesapeake Energy from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $115.00 to $114.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $105.00 to $107.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Chesapeake Energy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $120.71.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:EXE opened at $110.94 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $104.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.82 billion, a PE ratio of 68.48 and a beta of 0.53. Chesapeake Energy has a 52-week low of $81.66 and a 52-week high of $111.18. 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 (NASDAQ:EXE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. Chesapeake Energy had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 2.74%. The company had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Chesapeake Energy will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Chesapeake Energy news, CEO Domenic J. Dell’osso, Jr. acquired 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $99.50 per share, for a total transaction of $248,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 107,845 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,730,577.50. This trade represents a 2.37 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 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.