Blue Trust Inc. Lowers Position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Blue Trust Inc. lessened its stake in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 37.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,448 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 11,567 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Shell were worth $1,218,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP grew its holdings in shares of Shell by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP now owns 240,120 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $15,044,000 after purchasing an additional 1,074 shares during the period. Bogart Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Shell by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 17,068 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,069,000 after acquiring an additional 322 shares in the last quarter. Aries Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Shell by 26.6% in the 4th quarter. Aries Wealth Management now owns 8,626 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $540,000 after acquiring an additional 1,815 shares during the period. Avestar Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Shell by 10.2% during the 4th quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 5,223 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $327,000 after acquiring an additional 485 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park Capital Management LLC WI acquired a new stake in Shell in the 4th quarter valued at $369,000. 28.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on SHEL. UBS Group raised Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price 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. 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 report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. One equities 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, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $79.11.

Shell Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE:SHEL opened at $67.16 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $205.33 billion, a PE ratio of 13.38, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54. The business’s 50 day moving average is $64.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $66.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Shell plc has a 52 week low of $60.15 and a 52 week high of $74.61.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released its 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%. On average, analysts predict that Shell plc will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The business 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 $0.716 dividend. This is an increase 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%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Shell’s payout ratio is presently 56.97%.

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.