Critical Survey: Chesapeake Energy (EXE) & Its Competitors

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

97.9% of Chesapeake Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.0% of shares of all “Crude petroleum & natural gas” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Chesapeake Energy shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 9.0% of shares of all “Crude petroleum & natural gas” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

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 10.4% and pay out 115.9% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Chesapeake Energy lags its rivals as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Chesapeake Energy and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Chesapeake Energy	0	3	4	1	2.75
Chesapeake Energy Competitors	2172	11698	16256	633	2.50

Chesapeake Energy presently has a consensus price target of $101.71, suggesting a potential upside of 2.86%. As a group, “Crude petroleum & natural gas” companies have a potential upside of 20.77%. Given Chesapeake Energy’s rivals higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Chesapeake Energy has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Profitability

This table compares Chesapeake Energy and its rivals’ 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	-2.94%	2.64%	6.54%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Chesapeake Energy and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Chesapeake Energy	$8.72 billion	$2.42 billion	61.04
Chesapeake Energy Competitors	$713.07 billion	$1.07 billion	17.22

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

Risk & Volatility

Chesapeake Energy has a beta of 0.46, indicating that its stock price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Chesapeake Energy’s rivals have a beta of -14.18, indicating that their average stock price is 1,518% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Chesapeake Energy beats its rivals 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.