Topic: How To Invest

Best U.S. Stocks: Activist investor sparks changes at Chesapeake Energy

Investment AdviceEvery Thursday we bring you “Best U.S. Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster. Or, as with this stock, from coverage in our advisory on more aggressive investing, Stock Pickers Digest

CHESAPEAKE ENERGY (New York symbol CHK; www.chkenergy.com) is one of the largest U.S.-based oil and natural gas explorers and producers. Its production mix is 72% gas and 28% oil.

Chesapeake’s shares have nearly doubled since mid-2012, when activist investor Carl Icahn bought a stake in the firm. Icahn, who has a history of pushing companies to make changes that raise shareholder value, subsequently replaced four of Chesapeake’s eight board members with his nominees. The company also pushed out controversial co-founder, CEO and chairman Aubrey K. McClendon.

The company continues to restructure by selling non-essential properties and assets. That lets it pay down debt and focus on areas with strong potential.


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Energy stocks: Chesapeake spins off oilfield services division as Seventy Seven Energy

Most recently, the company set up its oilfield services division as a separate publicly traded firm. In June 2014, Chesapeake handed out shares in this new company, called Seventy Seven Energy, as a tax-deferred dividend. The new stock trades on New York under the symbol SSE.

Chesapeake’s $11.5 billion of debt is a high, but manageable, 68% of its market cap. It also holds cash of $1.5 billion, or $2.29 a share, and expects to get another $700 million from asset sales by the end of this year.

The company’s daily production averaged 632,000 barrels of oil equivalent in the quarter ended June 30, 2014, up 2.6% from 616,000 a year ago. Cash flow per share rose 3.5%, to $2.05 from $1.98.

The stock trades at just 3.1 times its annual cash flow of $8.20 a share, based on the latest quarter.

Chesapeake Energy is a buy recommendation of our advisory on more aggressive investing, Stock Pickers Digest.

Coming up Next Tomorrow we give you our view on a stock that helps many Americans collect their paychecks.

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