HM Payson & Co. Grows Stock Position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

HM Payson & Co. increased its holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 10.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,760 shares of the energy company’s stock after buying an additional 368 shares during the period. HM Payson & Co.’s holdings in Shell were worth $236,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings in Shell by 930.2% in the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 443 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Human Investing LLC purchased a new position in Shell in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new position in Shell in the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in Shell in the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in Shell by 567.0% in the 3rd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 627 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 533 shares in the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on SHEL shares. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price 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. 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. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $79.11.

Shell Stock Up 1.2 %

SHEL opened at $66.80 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $65.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $66.38. The company has a market cap of $203.16 billion, a PE ratio of 13.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47. Shell plc has a 1 year low of $60.15 and a 1 year high of $74.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.35.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released 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 return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 5.57%. Sell-side analysts expect that Shell plc will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.716 per share. This is a boost from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.29%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is 56.97%.

Shell 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.