WESPAC Advisors LLC Buys 3,636 Shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

WESPAC Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 35.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 13,919 shares of the energy company’s stock after buying an additional 3,636 shares during the period. WESPAC Advisors LLC’s holdings in Shell were worth $872,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Shell by 5.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 65,298,943 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $4,306,465,000 after purchasing an additional 3,255,347 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position 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 worth $1,617,796,000 after acquiring an additional 507,311 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Shell by 0.9% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,972,945 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $408,430,000 after acquiring an additional 55,637 shares in the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 422,329 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Shell by 29.8% in the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 3,773,617 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $248,870,000 after purchasing an additional 866,954 shares during the period. 28.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Shell Stock Down 2.5 %

Shares of NYSE SHEL opened at $66.67 on Friday. Shell plc has a one year low of $60.15 and a one year high of $74.61. 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 simple moving average is $64.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $66.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $202.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.28, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.74 by ($0.54). Shell had a return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 5.57%. As a group, analysts expect that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.716 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.30%. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.97%.

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.