Brandes Investment Partners LP Increases Stake in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Brandes Investment Partners LP boosted its stake in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 2.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,491,486 shares of the energy company’s stock after purchasing an additional 31,209 shares during the period. Brandes Investment Partners LP’s holdings in Shell were worth $93,442,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in Shell by 5.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 65,298,943 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $4,306,465,000 after purchasing an additional 3,255,347 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in Shell by 188.0% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,014,199 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $198,786,000 after purchasing an additional 1,967,672 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Shell in the fourth quarter worth $91,716,000. Holocene Advisors LP grew its stake in Shell by 29.8% in the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 3,773,617 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $248,870,000 after purchasing an additional 866,954 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Shell by 2.1% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,530,647 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,617,796,000 after acquiring an additional 507,311 shares in the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Shell Stock Performance

Shares of SHEL opened at $68.78 on Friday. 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $66.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.29. The stock has a market cap of $209.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.70, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47. Shell plc has a 52 week low of $60.15 and a 52 week high of $74.61.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.74 by ($0.54). Shell had a return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 5.57%. On average, analysts expect that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $0.716 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.16%. This is a boost from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 56.97%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on SHEL shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley raised Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group raised Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wolfe Research raised Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Shell currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $79.11.

Shell Company 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.