Wells Fargo & Company Issues Positive Forecast for Shell (NYSE:SHEL) Stock Price

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) had its price target upped by Wells Fargo & Company from $81.00 to $87.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the energy company’s stock.

SHEL has been the subject of several other reports. UBS Group raised shares of Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.50 to $79.80 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. TD Securities lifted their price target on shares of Shell from $81.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.10.

Shell Stock Performance

Shares of SHEL opened at $73.00 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $67.43 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $66.33. Shell has a 12 month low of $60.15 and a 12 month high of $74.61. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $220.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. As a group, analysts predict that Shell will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $0.716 dividend. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.92%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. Shell’s payout ratio is presently 56.97%.

Institutional Trading of Shell

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Shell by 32.3% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 86,417,177 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $5,414,036,000 after acquiring an additional 21,118,234 shares during the period. Voloridge Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Shell by 170.3% during the fourth quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 3,463,372 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $216,980,000 after purchasing an additional 2,182,253 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Shell in the fourth quarter valued at $91,716,000. Freestone Grove Partners LP purchased a new position in shares of Shell during the 4th quarter valued at $83,204,000. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP increased its holdings in Shell by 29.8% in the 3rd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 3,773,617 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $248,870,000 after acquiring an additional 866,954 shares during the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by 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.