Shell (NYSE:SHEL) Upgraded at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of Shell (NYSE:SHEL) to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Wednesday, Zacks.com reports.

SHEL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Scotiabank dropped their target price on Shell from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a sector outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Berenberg Bank upgraded Shell to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Shell from $88.00 to $84.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Argus raised their price target on Shell from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Shell to a moderate buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Shell has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $83.50.

Shell Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE SHEL opened at $68.50 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $69.93 and its 200-day moving average is $70.80. Shell has a one year low of $60.34 and a one year high of $74.61. The firm has a market cap of $216.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The energy company reported $1.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.15. Shell had a return on equity of 14.56% and a net margin of 5.97%. The business had revenue of $75.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.50 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Shell will post 8.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Shell Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a dividend of $0.688 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $2.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.02%. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.74%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SHEL. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Shell in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Shell by 611.1% in the 4th quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC now owns 448 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 385 shares during the period. Triad Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Shell in the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new stake in Shell in the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Fairman Group LLC bought a new stake in Shell in the 4th quarter valued at $45,000. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.