Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Decreases Position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC reduced its stake in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL - Free Report) by 7.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,675,600 shares of the energy company's stock after selling 218,004 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC owned approximately 0.09% of Shell worth $167,626,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Shell by 32.3% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 86,417,177 shares of the energy company's stock worth $5,414,036,000 after acquiring an additional 21,118,234 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Shell during the 4th quarter worth about $91,716,000. Bridgewater Associates LP lifted its holdings in Shell by 523.9% in the 4th quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP now owns 831,000 shares of the energy company's stock worth $52,062,000 after buying an additional 697,806 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Shell by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,938,735 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $1,562,412,000 after purchasing an additional 408,088 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. raised its position in shares of Shell by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 800,000 shares of the energy company's stock worth $50,120,000 after purchasing an additional 400,000 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.60% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on SHEL shares. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Shell in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. TD Securities reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Shell in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Shell from $87.00 to $83.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Shell in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Shell from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $77.73.

Shell Price Performance

Shell stock traded down $0.50 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $65.52. 2,991,416 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,310,098. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $67.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $65.94. The company has a market cap of $197.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.05, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.27. Shell plc has a 52-week low of $58.55 and a 52-week high of $74.61. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share 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%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Shell plc will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $0.716 per share. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.37%. This is a boost from Shell's previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Shell's dividend payout ratio is 56.97%.

Shell 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.