Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Receives Consensus Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the ten research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have given a buy recommendation and three have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $79.80.

SHEL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup upgraded shares of Shell to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays raised shares of Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of Shell from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Shell from $88.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th.

Shell Price Performance

Shares of SHEL stock opened at $61.69 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.13. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $64.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $68.44. Shell has a one year low of $60.15 and a one year high of $74.61. The firm has a market cap of $189.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.69, a P/E/G ratio of 4.84 and a beta of 0.55.

Shell Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a dividend of $0.688 per share. This represents a $2.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.58%.

Institutional Trading of Shell

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SHEL. Birmingham Capital Management Co. Inc. AL grew its holdings in Shell by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Birmingham Capital Management Co. Inc. AL now owns 11,078 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $731,000 after acquiring an additional 1,113 shares during the period. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. grew its stake in shares of Shell by 26.9% during the third quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 52,439 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $3,458,000 after purchasing an additional 11,105 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Shell by 0.9% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,972,945 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $408,430,000 after purchasing an additional 55,637 shares during the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its stake in Shell by 1.7% in the third quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 67,647 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $4,460,000 after buying an additional 1,152 shares during the period. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Shell by 23.7% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 105,674 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $6,969,000 after buying an additional 20,241 shares during the period. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Shell Company 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.