Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Short Interest Up 14.8% in January

Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,840,000 shares, a growth of 14.8% from the January 15th total of 5,960,000 shares. Approximately 0.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 4,220,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.6 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Shell during the third quarter worth about $121,000. Creative Planning grew its position in Shell by 4.8% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 306,491 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $20,213,000 after buying an additional 13,904 shares during the period. Good Life Advisors LLC grew its position in Shell by 11.9% during the third quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC now owns 4,368 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $288,000 after buying an additional 463 shares during the period. Cardinal Capital Management grew its position in Shell by 0.8% during the third quarter. Cardinal Capital Management now owns 55,362 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $3,651,000 after buying an additional 418 shares during the period. Finally, Ellsworth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Shell by 18.4% in the third quarter. Ellsworth Advisors LLC now owns 20,885 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,377,000 after purchasing an additional 3,239 shares in the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Shell Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of Shell stock traded down $0.22 during trading on Monday, hitting $67.16. 2,934,808 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,037,361. Shell has a 12-month low of $60.15 and a 12-month high of $74.61. The stock has a market cap of $205.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $64.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $66.89.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by ($0.54). Shell had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 12.75%. As a group, analysts forecast that Shell will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $0.716 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.26%. Shell’s payout ratio is currently 54.78%.

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.