Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Acquires Shares of 29,081 Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 29,081 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,822,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its stake in shares of Shell by 930.2% in the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 443 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. Human Investing LLC bought a new stake in shares of Shell in the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Shell in the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new stake in shares of Shell in the third quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of Shell by 567.0% in the third quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 627 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 533 shares during the period. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Shell Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SHEL opened at $66.80 on Friday. 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 plc has a 1-year low of $60.15 and a 1-year high of $74.61. The company has a market capitalization of $203.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.31, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $65.98 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $66.41.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share 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%. Research analysts expect that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $0.716 dividend. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.29%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. Shell’s payout ratio is 56.97%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on SHEL shares. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company 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 on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wolfe Research raised shares of Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. One 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $79.11.

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.