Jennison Associates LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 1.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,045,043 shares of the energy company’s stock after buying an additional 30,844 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC’s holdings in Shell were worth $190,772,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SHEL. Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. Fortitude Family Office LLC bought a new position in shares of Shell in the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Shell during the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of Shell during the 3rd quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Shell by 40.8% in the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 563 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Shell Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of SHEL stock opened at $65.82 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $201.23 billion, a PE ratio of 13.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.57 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $64.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $67.28. Shell plc has a 1 year low of $60.15 and a 1 year high of $74.61.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last issued 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 return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 5.57%. Research analysts predict that Shell plc will post 7.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $0.716 per share. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. Shell’s payout ratio is 54.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on SHEL shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $66.50 to $79.80 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group raised shares of Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average 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.