Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $85.00.

SHEL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Shell from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. TD Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Shell from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Shell from $91.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Argus lifted their price target on shares of Shell from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 6th.

Institutional Trading of Shell

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Shell during the second quarter worth $92,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Shell by 5.2% in the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 196,924 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $14,214,000 after purchasing an additional 9,658 shares during the last quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Shell by 4.1% in the second quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,086 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $295,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. Eldred Rock Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Shell by 55.8% in the second quarter. Eldred Rock Partners LLC now owns 35,611 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $2,570,000 after purchasing an additional 12,752 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Shell by 19.9% in the second quarter. Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC now owns 53,331 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $3,849,000 after purchasing an additional 8,850 shares during the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Shell Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE SHEL opened at $73.09 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $231.10 billion, a PE ratio of 13.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. Shell has a 1 year low of $59.51 and a 1 year high of $74.61. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $71.60 and its 200-day moving average is $68.09.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The energy company reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.87 by $0.51. Shell had a net margin of 5.83% and a return on equity of 13.83%. The company had revenue of $74.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.03 billion. Equities analysts expect that Shell will post 8.55 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a $0.688 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. This is an increase from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $2.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.77%. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.74%.

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.