Scotia Capital Inc. Has $2.15 Million Holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Scotia Capital Inc. lowered its holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL - Free Report) by 15.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 34,312 shares of the energy company's stock after selling 6,141 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc.'s holdings in Shell were worth $2,150,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its stake in Shell by 930.2% during 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 during the period. CoreFirst Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in Shell in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Human Investing LLC acquired a new position in Shell during the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Shell during the fourth quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC lifted its holdings in Shell by 50.0% in the fourth quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC now owns 600 shares of the energy company's stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SHEL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Shell from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Shell in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Shell from $87.00 to $83.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Shell presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $77.73.

Shell Stock Performance

SHEL stock traded up $0.98 during trading on Friday, reaching $65.01. 4,511,560 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,299,425. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $67.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $66.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The company has a market capitalization of $196.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.27. Shell plc has a twelve month low of $58.55 and a twelve month 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 earnings per share (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%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate 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 was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders 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. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Shell's dividend 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.