Insiders at Two Oil and Gas Companies Recently Hit by a Price Fall Purchased a Lot of Stock.

Although President Joe Biden promised to boost natural gas exports to Europe, not every company in that industry has reaped the benefits of his plan. An earlier-than-expected fire at a Texas liquefied natural gas shipping plant limited export capacity, dragging commodities’ prices—and natural gas stocks—slowly downward.

As of this writing, the stock of Oneok OKE +2.36 percent (ticker: OKE), an operator of natural gas pipelines, is down 17 percent, while the stock of Chesapeake Energy CHK +10.07% (CHK), a shale oil and gas company, is down 14 percent. S&P 500 SPX +3.06 percent in 2022 has fallen 18 percent, yet Chesapeake stock has risen 30 percent.

When Oneok released its first-quarter financial report in early May, it reaffirmed its 2022 projection. Neal Dingmann, an analyst with Truist, restated a Buy rating and a $78 price target on Oneok’s shares. In his article, Dingmann predicted that 2022 would be an “execution year with continuous gain from the commodity.”

He paid $500,000 for 8,975 shares on June 17 at an average price of $55.54 per share, according to an SEC filing by Oneok President and CEO Pierce H. Norton at the time. He now owns a total of 9,414 shares in the firm. Norton’s acquisition of Oneok shares was his first on the open market since he was appointed CEO on June 28, 2021. When Oneok split out from OGS in 2014, he served as its president and CEO.

Neither Oneok nor Norton responded to a request for comment.

Share and warrant buyback authority at Chesapeake has increased from $1 billion to $2 billion through the end of 2023 due to a stock price decrease in recent weeks. Our stock is undervalued, according to CEO Nick Dell’Osso, according to a statement.

With the additional buybacks, Credit Suisse analyst William Janela upped expectations in research, saying that the cash flow per share in 2022 and 2023 may climb by 3% and 7%, respectively. Outperform with a $115 price target is Chesapeake’s rating from him.

Chesapeake’s COO, Josh J. Viets, spent $206,800 for 2,450 shares during the second week of Juneat an average price of $84.41 per share. At the moment, he owns 25,804 shares. Viets had only made one purchase since assuming this new post as of February. He was an executive at ConocoPhillips before that (COP).

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