Expand Energy Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:EXE)
by Sarita Garza · The Markets DailyExpand Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:EXE – Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading on Monday. Investors purchased 21,936 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 170% compared to the typical daily volume of 8,113 call options.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
EXE has been the topic of several research reports. William Blair lowered Expand Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Expand Energy from $139.00 to $131.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 29th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Expand Energy from $135.00 to $127.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Barclays lowered shares of Expand Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “reduce” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Expand Energy from $134.00 to $117.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $129.78.
Read Our Latest Analysis on EXE
Insider Buying and Selling
In other news, CEO Michael Wichterich purchased 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $88.90 per share, for a total transaction of $88,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 85,498 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,600,772.20. This represents a 1.18% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Marcel Teunissen acquired 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 7th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $96.43 per share, with a total value of $192,860.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,144 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $881,755.92. This represents a 28.00% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders acquired 4,000 shares of company stock worth $375,120. 0.22% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Expand Energy
Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Expand Energy by 25.9% in the fourth quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC now owns 77,230 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,523,000 after acquiring an additional 15,904 shares during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp increased its holdings in shares of Expand Energy by 16.6% in the 4th quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 239,607 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,443,000 after acquiring an additional 34,132 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its holdings in shares of Expand Energy by 36,574.9% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 2,420,912 shares of the company’s stock valued at $267,172,000 after acquiring an additional 2,414,311 shares during the period. CSM Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Expand Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at $20,103,000. Finally, Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich purchased a new stake in Expand Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $57,153,000. 97.93% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Expand Energy Stock Down 0.2%
Shares of EXE stock traded down $0.15 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $87.10. 4,019,749 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,738,429. The business’s fifty day moving average is $92.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $100.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.11. Expand Energy has a 12-month low of $84.99 and a 12-month high of $126.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.50 and a beta of 0.34.
Expand Energy (NASDAQ:EXE – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The company reported $3.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.61 by $0.22. Expand Energy had a net margin of 22.53% and a return on equity of 10.26%. The firm had revenue of $4.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.53 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Expand Energy will post 8.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Expand Energy Announces Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 14th were given a $0.575 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 14th. This represents a $2.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Expand Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 17.15%.
Expand 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.