LSV Asset Management Purchases Shares of 7,400 Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

LSV Asset Management bought a new position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 7,400 shares of the energy company's stock, valued at approximately $464,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of SHEL. Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its holdings in Shell by 930.2% during the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 443 shares of the energy company's stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. CoreFirst Bank & Trust purchased a new position in Shell during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Human Investing LLC purchased a new stake in Shell in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Shell during the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Shell by 50.0% in the fourth quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC now owns 600 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 28.60% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on SHEL. Wolfe Research raised Shell from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Shell in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. TD Securities reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Shell in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley raised Shell from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price target on Shell from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $77.73.

Shell Price Performance

NYSE SHEL traded up $0.98 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $65.01. The company had a trading volume of 4,511,560 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,296,085. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $67.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.09. Shell plc has a 52 week low of $58.55 and a 52 week high of $74.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $196.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.95, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.27. 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 - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.74 by ($0.54). Shell had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 12.75%. Equities research analysts expect that Shell plc will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were paid 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 of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.41%. Shell's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.