Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Lowers Position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. lowered its position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 4.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,920 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 500 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in Shell were worth $799,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in Shell during the third quarter worth $26,000. Rise Advisors LLC grew its position in Shell by 84.4% during the fourth quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 413 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 189 shares during the period. Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Shell by 217.7% in the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 413 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 283 shares during the period. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Shell by 611.1% in the 4th quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC now owns 448 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 385 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fortis Group Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Shell during the third quarter worth $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SHEL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Shell from $91.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 21st. TD Securities upped their target price on Shell from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Argus raised their price target on Shell from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $69.25.

Shell Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of SHEL opened at $73.06 on Wednesday. Shell plc has a fifty-two week low of $58.14 and a fifty-two week high of $74.61. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $71.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $67.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.42. The company has a market capitalization of $232.31 billion, a PE ratio of 13.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 0.59.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The energy company reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.87 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $74.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $88.03 billion. Shell had a return on equity of 13.83% and a net margin of 5.83%. As a group, analysts forecast that Shell plc will post 8.55 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a $0.688 dividend. This represents a $2.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.77%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. This is a positive change from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.74%.

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.