NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Chesapeake Energy Corp. are down by 1.36% to $18.16 in early afternoon trading on Friday, as oil and energy related stocks fall today along with the price of oil. Crude oil (WTI) is down by 2.58% to $47.53 per barrel, and Brent crude is falling by 3.26% to $49.30 per barrel this afternoon, according to the Bloomberg index. Oil began to slip following two days of slight stabilization and hit new over five year lows, Reuters reports. Exclusive Report: Jim Cramer's Best Stocks For 2015 STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more. Oil has been on the decline since June due to the global supply glut. The slump in oil increased in November, when OPEC announced it had no intention of cutting its production, despite the oversupply. Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates CHESAPEAKE ENERGY CORP as a Hold with a ratings score of C+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate CHESAPEAKE ENERGY CORP (CHK) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its robust revenue growth, growth in earnings per share and increase in net income. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including weak operating cash flow, a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself and poor profit margins." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 6.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 17.2%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share. CHESAPEAKE ENERGY CORP has improved earnings per share by 8.3% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past year. We feel that this trend should continue. This trend suggests that the performance of the business is improving. During the past fiscal year, CHESAPEAKE ENERGY CORP turned its bottom line around by earning $0.68 versus -$1.62 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($1.61 versus $0.68). The debt-to-equity ratio is somewhat low, currently at 0.71, and is less than that of the industry average, implying that there has been a relatively successful effort in the management of debt levels. Even though the company has a strong debt-to-equity ratio, the quick ratio of 0.46 is very weak and demonstrates a lack of ability to pay short-term obligations. CHK's stock share price has done very poorly compared to where it was a year ago: Despite any rallies, the net result is that it is down by 27.41%, which is also worse that the performance of the S&P 500 Index. Investors have so far failed to pay much attention to the earnings improvements the company has managed to achieve over the last quarter. Turning toward the future, the fact that the stock has come down in price over the past year should not necessarily be interpreted as a negative; it could be one of the factors that may help make the stock attractive down the road. Right now, however, we believe that it is too soon to buy. Net operating cash flow has decreased to $1,162.00 million or 14.30% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing the cash generation rate to the industry average, the firm's growth is significantly lower. You can view the full analysis from the report here: CHK Ratings Report STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.
Click to view a price quote on CHK. Click to research the Energy industry.
from Latest TSC Headlines http://ift.tt/1AxeYPF
No comments:
Post a Comment