Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Stock Holdings Lifted by Principal Securities Inc.

Principal Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 18.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 21,288 shares of the energy company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,331 shares during the quarter. Principal Securities Inc.’s holdings in Shell were worth $1,334,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Shell by 51.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,463 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $468,000 after buying an additional 2,545 shares during the period. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC grew its stake in Shell by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 3,741 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $247,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC grew its position in Shell by 15.8% during the fourth quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC now owns 29,560 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,852,000 after purchasing an additional 4,028 shares in the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its stake in Shell by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 3,125,284 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $206,116,000 after buying an additional 46,293 shares during the period. Finally, Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of Shell by 266.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 88,700 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on SHEL. Wolfe Research raised Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $79.11.

Shell Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:SHEL opened at $67.87 on Wednesday. Shell plc has a 52-week low of $60.15 and a 52-week 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 company has a market cap of $207.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.52, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $64.61 and its 200-day moving average is $66.85.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 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%. Equities research analysts predict that Shell plc will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.716 per share. This is an increase from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.22%. Shell’s payout ratio is presently 54.78%.

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.