Blair William & Co. IL Sells 1,849 Shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Blair William & Co. IL trimmed its position in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 64,795 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 1,849 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Shell were worth $4,059,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Shell in the 4th quarter valued at $91,716,000. Holocene Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Shell by 29.8% during the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 3,773,617 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $248,870,000 after buying an additional 866,954 shares in the last quarter. Merewether Investment Management LP raised its position in Shell by 41.0% in the 3rd quarter. Merewether Investment Management LP now owns 1,544,764 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $101,877,000 after buying an additional 449,000 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Shell by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,938,735 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,562,412,000 after acquiring an additional 408,088 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in shares of Shell by 16,663.4% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 307,440 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $19,261,000 after purchasing an additional 305,606 shares during the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Shell Stock Performance

NYSE:SHEL opened at $73.32 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $67.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $66.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $221.69 billion, a PE ratio of 14.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47. Shell plc has a twelve month low of $60.15 and a twelve month high of $74.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 EPS 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, analysts anticipate that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a $0.716 dividend. This is a boost from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is 56.97%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on SHEL. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Shell from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. TD Cowen began coverage on Shell in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $81.00 target price on the stock. Wolfe Research upgraded Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Shell in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Shell presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $80.10.

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.