Steps taken by executive leadership at Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy have resulted in an improved status given the company by the investment bank and asset management firm Piper Jaffray.
Chesapeake’s been upgraded from Underweight to Neutral because analysts at Piper Jaffray believe the natural gas producer’s recent actions have “diminished” its default risk over the next couple of years, according to a report on Bidnessetc.com.
Chesapeake still has $9 billion in debt and some analysts expressed concerns months ago about the company’s equity value, but Pipe Jaffray says divestiture of assets and debt/equity swaps has improved the outlook for the company.
Chesapeake has issued roughly 87 million shares in the second quarter to repurchase $444 million of its bonds through several private transactions. The company now has about $1.4 billion of debt coming due in 2017, $847 million in 2018 and $1.33 billion in 2019.