Bank OZK Grows Position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Bank OZK raised its position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 14.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 17,281 shares of the energy company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,222 shares during the period. Bank OZK’s holdings in Shell were worth $1,083,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Shell by 51.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,463 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $468,000 after buying an additional 2,545 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its stake in Shell by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 33,168 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $2,078,000 after buying an additional 301 shares during the period. HF Advisory Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Shell by 15.8% during the fourth quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC now owns 29,560 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,852,000 after purchasing an additional 4,028 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Shell by 1.5% during the third quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 3,125,284 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $206,116,000 after purchasing an additional 46,293 shares during the period. Finally, Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. boosted its stake in shares of Shell by 266.1% during the fourth quarter. Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. now owns 122,030 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $7,645,000 after purchasing an additional 88,700 shares during the period. 28.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Shell Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of SHEL opened at $67.42 on Friday. Shell plc has a 52-week low of $60.15 and a 52-week high of $74.61. The company has a market capitalization of $205.03 billion, a PE ratio of 13.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $65.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.71. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 5.57%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $0.716 dividend. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.25%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.97%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group upgraded Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Shell has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $79.11.

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.