Chesapeake Weakness An 'Opportunity' For Bulls, Wunderlich Says

Following new reports that Chesapeake Energy Corp CHK subsidiaries are in the process of selling $840 million of Anadarko Basin assets, Wunderlich analyst Jason Wangler took a look at Chesapeake’s continuing efforts to simplify and improve its balance sheet.

Wangler believes that opportunistic buyers of Chesapeake’s stock at recent low prices will be rewarded in the long run.

Balance sheet overhaul

The sale of the Anadarko Basin assets to privately-held FourPoint Energy LLC could potentially reduce Chesapeake’s CHK Cleveland Tonkawa LLC liability. Although a price of $40,000 per flowing boe is well below the price the assets would have fetched a year ago, Wangler believes the move is bullish for the stock, as it provides a much-needed boost to the company’s balance sheet without sacrificing much of the upside potential in Chesapeake’s core assets.

Cash issues

One of the major fears in the market surrounding Chesapeake is that the company will continue to out-spend its cash. However, Wangler does not see cash as an immediate concern.

“Considering that the company has $3 billion in cash and an undrawn $4 billion revolver, we believe these concerns are overblown; but, more importantly, as the year moves on we look for CHK to be near cash flow breakeven even in a weak commodity environment, though admittedly production will decline with lower activity,” Wangler explains.

Outlook

Wunderlich sees Chesapeake’s current depressed share price as a major buying opportunity. The stock is currently trading at just 3x 2016 estimated price/cash flow per share (P/CFPS), about half the 6x multiple of its peers.

Wunderlich has a Buy rating on Chesapeake and a $24 target for the stock.