Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Shares Acquired by Valley National Advisers Inc.

Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its stake in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 930.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 443 shares of the energy company’s stock after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. Valley National Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Shell were worth $27,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SHEL. Fortitude Family Office LLC purchased a new position in Shell during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new position in Shell during the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in Shell during the third quarter worth approximately $35,000. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Shell by 40.8% during the third quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 563 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new position in Shell during the fourth quarter worth approximately $40,000. 28.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group upgraded Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Shell from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Shell presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.11.

Shell Price Performance

NYSE:SHEL opened at $65.21 on Tuesday. 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 quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.35. The stock has a market cap of $199.37 billion, a PE ratio of 12.99, a P/E/G ratio of 6.57 and a beta of 0.55. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $64.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.23.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last posted 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%. Equities research analysts expect that Shell plc will post 7.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.716 per share. This is a boost from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.39%. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.