First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Sells 837 Shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. cut its holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 66,386 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 837 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Shell were worth $4,378,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of SHEL. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC grew its position in shares of Shell by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 3,741 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $247,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in Shell by 21.0% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 44,896 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $3,009,000 after buying an additional 7,779 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of Shell by 11.3% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 292,587 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $21,119,000 after buying an additional 29,677 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in shares of Shell by 65.7% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,698,247 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $122,579,000 after acquiring an additional 673,624 shares during the period. Finally, Foresight Global Investors Inc. purchased a new stake in Shell in the 2nd quarter worth about $1,472,000. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Shell Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SHEL traded up $0.36 on Wednesday, hitting $65.64. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,527,540 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,123,705. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $68.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $70.61. The company has a market capitalization of $204.28 billion, a PE ratio of 12.05, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.56. Shell plc has a 1 year low of $60.34 and a 1 year high of $74.61. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The energy company reported $1.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $75.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $88.62 billion. Shell had a net margin of 5.97% and a return on equity of 14.56%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.50 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Shell plc will post 8.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a dividend of $0.688 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $2.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.19%. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.74%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on SHEL shares. Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of Shell from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Shell to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Shell in a report on Thursday, July 18th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Berenberg Bank upgraded Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Barclays upgraded Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.00.

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.