Equitable Trust Co. Invests $1 Million in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Equitable Trust Co. bought a new stake in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 15,970 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,001,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in SHEL. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Shell in the 3rd quarter valued at $121,000. CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Shell by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 52,914 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $3,490,000 after acquiring an additional 4,660 shares during the period. Willis Investment Counsel increased its position in shares of Shell by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Willis Investment Counsel now owns 336,374 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $22,184,000 after acquiring an additional 1,555 shares during the period. Thomasville National Bank increased its position in shares of Shell by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Thomasville National Bank now owns 333,834 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $22,016,000 after acquiring an additional 17,150 shares during the period. Finally, Woodstock Corp boosted its holdings in Shell by 1.2% in the third quarter. Woodstock Corp now owns 141,083 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $9,304,000 after purchasing an additional 1,631 shares during the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on SHEL. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $66.50 to $79.80 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. 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 issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $79.11.

Shell Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of Shell stock opened at $66.13 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $202.19 billion, a PE ratio of 13.17, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54. Shell plc has a twelve month low of $60.15 and a twelve month high of $74.61. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $64.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $67.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by ($0.54). Shell had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 12.75%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Shell plc will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $0.716 dividend. This is an increase 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.33%. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.78%.

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.