Shell (NYSE:SHEL) Price Target Cut to $83.00 by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) had its price target lowered by Wells Fargo & Company from $87.00 to $83.00 in a report published on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the energy company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on SHEL. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Shell in a report on Friday. Wolfe Research raised shares of Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Shell in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $78.98.

Shell Price Performance

Shell stock opened at $59.62 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $67.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $66.36. Shell has a 12 month low of $59.01 and a 12 month high of $74.61. The company has a market cap of $180.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.88, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.27.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by ($0.54). Shell had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 12.75%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Shell will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $0.716 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.80%. This is a positive change from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.97%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Shell

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Shell by 32.3% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 86,417,177 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $5,414,036,000 after purchasing an additional 21,118,234 shares during the last quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Shell by 170.3% in the fourth quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 3,463,372 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $216,980,000 after purchasing an additional 2,182,253 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Shell during the 4th quarter valued at about $91,716,000. Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new position in Shell in the 4th quarter worth about $83,204,000. Finally, Merewether Investment Management LP increased its position in shares of Shell by 46.5% during the fourth quarter. Merewether Investment Management LP now owns 2,262,997 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $141,777,000 after acquiring an additional 718,233 shares during the period. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.