Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” by Analysts

Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Buy” by the twelve research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have issued a buy recommendation and three have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $79.69.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler dropped 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. Wolfe Research raised Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Barclays raised shares of Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Shell

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Shell in the 4th quarter valued at about $81,000. Great Diamond Partners LLC lifted its stake in Shell by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Great Diamond Partners LLC now owns 10,501 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $658,000 after buying an additional 273 shares during the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Shell by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 30,863 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,934,000 after acquiring an additional 791 shares during the period. New Wave Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Shell in the 4th quarter valued at $161,000. Finally, BTC Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Shell by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. now owns 23,186 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,446,000 after purchasing an additional 2,727 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Shell Stock Performance

NYSE SHEL opened at $66.66 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $67.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock has a market cap of $203.80 billion, a PE ratio of 13.72, a P/E/G ratio of 5.96 and a beta of 0.55. Shell has a twelve month low of $60.15 and a twelve month high of $74.61.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The energy company reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $72.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.58 billion. Shell had a net margin of 5.17% and a return on equity of 14.54%. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.86 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Shell will post 8.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Shell Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a $0.688 dividend. This represents a $2.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. Shell’s payout ratio is 56.58%.

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.