Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Shell (NYSE:SHEL)

Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors purchased 20,796 call options on the company. This is an increase of 148% compared to the average daily volume of 8,370 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Shell Stock Performance

SHEL stock opened at $68.78 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $209.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.70, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $66.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.29. Shell has a one year low of $60.15 and a one year high of $74.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.35.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Shell will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued a dividend of $0.716 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.16%. This is an increase from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is 56.97%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Shell

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SHEL. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Shell by 32.3% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Shell by 170.3% in the 4th quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 3,463,372 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $216,980,000 after buying an additional 2,182,253 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in Shell by 188.0% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,014,199 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $198,786,000 after buying an additional 1,967,672 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Shell in the 4th quarter worth approximately $91,716,000. Finally, Freestone Grove Partners LP acquired a new position in Shell in the 4th quarter worth approximately $83,204,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

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.