Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Trims Stake in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH decreased its position in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 12.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,451 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 756 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings in Shell were worth $342,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC increased its position in Shell by 5.2% in 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. Empyrean Capital Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Shell in the second quarter valued at approximately $151,578,000. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake 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 worth $198,786,000 after purchasing an additional 1,967,672 shares during the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP grew its position in Shell by 29.8% in the 3rd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 3,773,617 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $248,870,000 after buying an additional 866,954 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mediolanum International Funds Ltd acquired a new position in Shell in the 3rd quarter valued at $37,274,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Shell Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of SHEL opened at $66.66 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.13. Shell plc has a 1-year low of $60.15 and a 1-year high of $74.61. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $64.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $67.68. The stock has a market cap of $203.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.96 and a beta of 0.55.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The energy company reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. Shell had a net margin of 5.17% and a return on equity of 14.54%. The firm had revenue of $72.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.86 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Shell plc will post 8.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a $0.688 dividend. This represents a $2.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.13%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.58%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays raised Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Shell from $87.00 to $86.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Shell from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Shell to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Shell presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.69.

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.