J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Boosts Stake in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 21.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,874 shares of the energy company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,615 shares during the quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Shell were worth $932,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SHEL. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Shell by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 65,298,943 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $4,306,465,000 after buying an additional 3,255,347 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Shell by 2.1% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,530,647 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,617,796,000 after purchasing an additional 507,311 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of Shell by 0.9% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,972,945 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $408,430,000 after purchasing an additional 55,637 shares during the period. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Shell by 8.7% during the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 5,282,868 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $348,405,000 after purchasing an additional 422,329 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP lifted its stake in Shell by 29.8% in the 3rd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 3,773,617 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $248,870,000 after buying an additional 866,954 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on SHEL. Wolfe Research upgraded Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $66.50 to $79.80 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group raised shares of Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $79.11.

Shell Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE SHEL opened at $67.87 on Wednesday. Shell plc has a 1 year low of $60.15 and a 1 year high of $74.61. The company has a market capitalization of $207.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.52, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $64.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $66.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.10.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.74 by ($0.54). Shell had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 12.75%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Shell plc will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $0.716 dividend. This is a positive change from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.22%. Shell’s payout ratio is presently 54.78%.

Shell Profile

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.