Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Shares Purchased by Equity Investment Corp

Equity Investment Corp grew its position in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL - Free Report) by 1.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,023,439 shares of the energy company's stock after purchasing an additional 10,795 shares during the quarter. Equity Investment Corp's holdings in Shell were worth $64,118,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Foster Group Inc. grew its stake in Shell by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 3,393 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $213,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares during the period. Warther Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in Shell by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,268 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $205,000 after acquiring an additional 169 shares during the period. Klingman & Associates LLC grew its stake in Shell by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 3,421 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $214,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the period. RHS Financial LLC boosted its stake in Shell by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. RHS Financial LLC now owns 5,667 shares of the energy company's stock worth $355,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Doliver Advisors LP boosted its stake in Shell by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Doliver Advisors LP now owns 3,632 shares of the energy company's stock worth $228,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on SHEL. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Shell from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Shell from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $80.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group raised 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 given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Shell has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $79.11.

Shell Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE:SHEL traded up $0.15 on Friday, reaching $67.42. 3,989,051 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,961,858. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $205.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54. The business has a fifty day moving average of $65.49 and a 200-day moving average of $66.63. Shell plc has a 52-week low of $60.15 and a 52-week high of $74.61.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 5.57%. As a group, analysts expect that Shell plc will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current 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 is an increase from Shell's previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.25%. Shell's payout ratio is currently 56.97%.

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.