Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Short Interest Update

Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,210,000 shares, a growth of 62.6% from the February 28th total of 5,050,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 4,330,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.9 days. Approximately 0.3% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Shell

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Shell by 11.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 184,919 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $12,195,000 after purchasing an additional 18,725 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of Shell in the third quarter valued at about $35,000. Bridgewater Associates LP purchased a new stake in shares of Shell during the third quarter worth about $8,784,000. CreativeOne Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Shell by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 8,324 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $549,000 after purchasing an additional 417 shares during the period. Finally, Fiduciary Trust Co lifted its holdings in Shell by 12.6% in the 3rd quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co now owns 66,760 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $4,403,000 after buying an additional 7,466 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Shell from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. TD Securities increased their target price on shares of Shell from $81.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, 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 research note on Friday, January 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Shell currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $80.10.

Shell Stock Performance

NYSE:SHEL traded up $0.25 during trading on Monday, reaching $72.98. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,786,600 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,167,887. The firm has a market cap of $220.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47. Shell has a 12 month low of $60.15 and a 12 month high of $74.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $67.68 and a 200-day moving average of $66.42.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released 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 net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 12.75%. Research analysts expect that Shell will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $0.716 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.92%. This is a boost from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.97%.

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.