Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC Reduces Holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 4.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 24,450 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 1,175 shares during the period. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Shell were worth $1,532,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC lifted its position in Shell by 5.2% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Shell in the 4th quarter worth about $91,716,000. Holocene Advisors LP grew its position in Shell by 29.8% during the 3rd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 3,773,617 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $248,870,000 after purchasing an additional 866,954 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Shell by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,530,647 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,617,796,000 after purchasing an additional 507,311 shares in the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Shell Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SHEL opened at $67.78 on Friday. 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 plc has a 1 year low of $60.15 and a 1 year high of $74.61. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $66.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $66.32. The stock has a market cap of $206.13 billion, a PE ratio of 13.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 EPS 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%. Equities analysts anticipate that Shell plc will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $0.716 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.23%. This is a boost from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.97%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Wolfe Research raised Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight 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 stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $79.11.

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.