Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Short Interest Update

Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) saw a large decline in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 5,050,000 shares, a decline of 18.5% from the February 13th total of 6,200,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 4,190,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.2 days. Approximately 0.2% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Shell

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Shell by 32.3% in 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 during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Shell by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,938,735 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,562,412,000 after buying an additional 408,088 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Shell by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,982,817 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $500,123,000 after purchasing an additional 238,705 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Shell by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,023,173 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $377,352,000 after purchasing an additional 50,228 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mawer Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in Shell by 8.7% in the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 5,282,868 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $348,405,000 after purchasing an additional 422,329 shares during the period. 28.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Shell Stock Performance

SHEL stock traded down $0.05 during trading on Thursday, hitting $71.48. The company had a trading volume of 1,112,091 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,345,486. Shell has a 1-year low of $60.15 and a 1-year high of $74.61. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $66.78 and a 200-day moving average price of $66.22. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market cap of $216.12 billion, a PE ratio of 14.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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, analysts expect that Shell will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current 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 represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. Shell’s payout ratio is currently 56.97%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SHEL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective 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 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. TD Securities boosted their target price on Shell from $81.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen began coverage on shares of Shell in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $81.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $79.48.

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.