Bridgewater Associates LP Grows Stock Holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Bridgewater Associates LP grew its holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL - Free Report) by 523.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 831,000 shares of the energy company's stock after purchasing an additional 697,806 shares during the quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP's holdings in Shell were worth $52,062,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SHEL. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Shell in the third quarter valued at approximately $5,154,000. World Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Shell by 37.0% during the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,594 shares of the energy company's stock worth $369,000 after acquiring an additional 1,512 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Shell in the third quarter valued at $2,552,000. Tidal Investments LLC grew its stake in Shell by 267.9% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 230,027 shares of the energy company's stock worth $15,170,000 after purchasing an additional 167,502 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp raised its position in Shell by 23.7% in the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 105,674 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $6,969,000 after purchasing an additional 20,241 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.60% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SHEL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Shell in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Shell from $87.00 to $83.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Scotiabank cut their target price on Shell from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Wolfe Research raised Shell from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $80.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Shell from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $77.73.

Shell Price Performance

Shares of SHEL traded up $0.98 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $65.01. The company's stock 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 $66.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $196.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.95, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Shell plc has a 1-year low of $58.55 and a 1-year high of $74.61.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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%. Analysts predict that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $0.716 dividend. This is an increase 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 (DPR) is presently 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.