Howland Capital Management LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Howland Capital Management LLC decreased its holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 16,149 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 601 shares during the quarter. Howland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Shell were worth $1,012,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its position in shares of Shell by 930.2% during the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 443 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Shell during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Shell during the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in shares of Shell during the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Shell by 40.8% during the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 563 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Shell Stock Down 0.4 %

NYSE SHEL opened at $65.87 on Friday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $201.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.12, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54. Shell plc has a one year low of $60.15 and a one year high of $74.61. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $64.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $67.13.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released 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%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Shell plc will post 7.46 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. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.716 per share. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.35%. 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. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on SHEL. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group upgraded Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus 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.