Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Hits New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:EXE)’s share price hit a new 52-week high on Monday . The company traded as high as $97.36 and last traded at $97.28, with a volume of 585061 shares. The stock had previously closed at $94.99.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on EXE. Roth Capital upgraded shares of Chesapeake Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a report on Monday, October 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $114.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $90.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $99.20.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Up 1.5 %

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 company has a market cap of $22.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.77 and a beta of 0.46.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.15. Chesapeake Energy had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 2.74%. The business had revenue of $648.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $708.98 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.09 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 57.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Chesapeake Energy Corporation will post 0.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Chesapeake Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.575 per share. This represents a $2.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 14th. Chesapeake Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 141.98%.

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.