Manning & Napier Advisors LLC Makes New $13.49 Million Investment in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 186,937 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,493,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Team Hewins LLC bought a new position in shares of Shell in the fourth quarter worth approximately $769,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Shell by 21.0% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 44,896 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $3,009,000 after purchasing an additional 7,779 shares during the period. Westwood Global Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Shell by 14.4% in the fourth quarter. Westwood Global Investments LLC now owns 2,417,326 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $159,060,000 after buying an additional 304,871 shares in the last quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisors L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Shell in the fourth quarter worth $22,628,000. Finally, Pingora Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Shell in the fourth quarter worth $1,306,000. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Shell Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of SHEL traded up $0.53 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $71.88. The stock had a trading volume of 4,546,040 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,547,944. Shell plc has a 1 year low of $60.13 and a 1 year high of $74.61. The firm has a market cap of $227.29 billion, a PE ratio of 13.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $71.50 and its 200 day moving average is $69.10.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The energy company reported $1.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.15. Shell had a net margin of 5.97% and a return on equity of 14.56%. The business had revenue of $75.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $88.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.50 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Shell plc will post 8.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be issued a $0.688 dividend. This represents a $2.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.83%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. Shell’s payout ratio is presently 50.74%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SHEL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Shell from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 12th. TD Securities boosted their target price on shares of Shell from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Shell in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Shell to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Berenberg Bank raised shares of Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Shell has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $73.40.

About Shell

Shell plc operates as an energy and petrochemical company Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa, the United States, and Rest of the Americas. The company operates through Integrated Gas, Upstream, Marketing, Chemicals and Products, and Renewables and Energy Solutions segments. It explores for and extracts crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids; markets and transports oil and gas; produces gas-to-liquids fuels and other products; and operates upstream and midstream infrastructure to deliver gas to market.