Probity Advisors Inc. Acquires 226 Shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Probity Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,409 shares of the energy company’s stock after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the period. Probity Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Shell were worth $423,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Empyrean Capital Partners LP acquired a new position in Shell in the 2nd quarter valued at $151,578,000. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD grew its position in shares of Shell by 83.2% in the first quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 2,187,872 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $146,675,000 after purchasing an additional 993,342 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Shell by 13.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,715,078 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $450,180,000 after purchasing an additional 772,736 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in Shell by 65.7% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,698,247 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $122,579,000 after purchasing an additional 673,624 shares during the period. Finally, Senator Investment Group LP acquired a new stake in Shell in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $42,775,000. 28.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Shell from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Shell from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Barclays upgraded shares of Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Shell in a report on Thursday, July 18th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $82.00.

Shell Stock Performance

NYSE SHEL opened at $66.90 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $211.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.30, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.56. Shell plc has a 1-year low of $60.34 and a 1-year high of $74.61. The company has a 50 day moving average of $69.39 and a 200-day moving average of $70.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The energy company reported $1.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.15. Shell had a return on equity of 14.56% and a net margin of 5.97%. The company had revenue of $75.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.62 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.50 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Shell plc will post 8.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Shell Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a dividend of $0.688 per share. This represents a $2.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is 50.74%.

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.