Willis Investment Counsel Purchases 2,748 Shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Willis Investment Counsel increased its position in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 339,122 shares of the energy company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,748 shares during the period. Willis Investment Counsel’s holdings in Shell were worth $21,246,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in Shell by 5.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 65,298,943 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $4,306,465,000 after acquiring an additional 3,255,347 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in Shell by 188.0% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,014,199 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $198,786,000 after acquiring an additional 1,967,672 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP grew its stake in Shell by 29.8% during the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 3,773,617 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $248,870,000 after acquiring an additional 866,954 shares in the last quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd purchased a new position in Shell during the third quarter valued at $37,274,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Shell by 2.1% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,530,647 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,617,796,000 after acquiring an additional 507,311 shares in the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Shell Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of SHEL opened at $65.82 on Monday. Shell plc has a 1-year low of $60.15 and a 1-year high of $74.61. The company has a 50-day moving average of $64.17 and a 200 day moving average of $67.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $201.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.11, a PEG ratio of 6.57 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.10.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last announced 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, research analysts expect that Shell plc will post 7.27 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.716 per share. This is a positive change from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.35%. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SHEL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Shell from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company in a research note 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 assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $79.11.

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.