Meritage Portfolio Management Has $1.90 Million Stock Position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Meritage Portfolio Management trimmed its position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 55.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 30,396 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 38,558 shares during the quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in Shell were worth $1,904,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Choreo LLC lifted its position in Shell by 17.5% during the fourth quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 91,225 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $5,644,000 after acquiring an additional 13,617 shares during the last quarter. Country Club Bank increased its holdings in Shell by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Country Club Bank now owns 173,534 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $10,721,000 after buying an additional 974 shares during the period. Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Shell by 266.1% in the 4th quarter. Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. now owns 122,030 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $7,645,000 after purchasing an additional 88,700 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. raised its stake in Shell by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 16,686 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,045,000 after acquiring an additional 1,512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caas Capital Management LP boosted its position in Shell by 24.1% in the fourth quarter. Caas Capital Management LP now owns 36,000 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $2,255,000 after buying an additional 7,000 shares in the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on SHEL. Morgan Stanley raised Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wolfe Research raised shares of 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. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Shell from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their target price 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 issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Shell presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.11.

Shell Stock Performance

Shares of SHEL opened at $66.55 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $64.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $67.18. Shell plc has a 12 month low of $60.15 and a 12 month high of $74.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $203.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.57 and a beta of 0.54.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share 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%. As a group, analysts predict that Shell plc will post 7.27 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $0.716 dividend. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.30%. This is a boost from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.78%.

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.