Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Shares Sold by Advisors Preferred LLC

Advisors Preferred LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 63.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,590 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 2,742 shares during the quarter. Advisors Preferred LLC’s holdings in Shell were worth $100,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of SHEL. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Shell by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 65,298,943 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $4,306,465,000 after purchasing an additional 3,255,347 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in Shell by 188.0% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,014,199 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $198,786,000 after acquiring an additional 1,967,672 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Shell by 29.8% during the 3rd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 3,773,617 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $248,870,000 after acquiring an additional 866,954 shares during the period. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd purchased a new position in Shell during the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,274,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Shell by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,530,647 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,617,796,000 after acquiring an additional 507,311 shares during the period. 28.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Shell Price Performance

SHEL stock opened at $65.87 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $64.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.13. The stock has a market cap of $201.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.12, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54. Shell plc has a fifty-two week low of $60.15 and a fifty-two week high of $74.61. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.74 by ($0.54). Shell had a return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 5.57%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Shell plc will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $0.716 per share. This is a positive change from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.35%. Shell’s payout ratio is 54.78%.

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.