Sit Investment Associates Inc. Sells 11,392 Shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Sit Investment Associates Inc. decreased its position in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 7.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 132,853 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 11,392 shares during the period. Sit Investment Associates Inc.’s holdings in Shell were worth $8,323,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Smith Moore & CO. boosted its holdings in Shell by 85.0% in the 4th quarter. Smith Moore & CO. now owns 7,840 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $491,000 after buying an additional 3,603 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co. boosted its stake in shares of Shell by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 47,490 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $2,975,000 after acquiring an additional 2,292 shares during the period. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Shell by 14.4% during the fourth quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,451 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $279,000 after purchasing an additional 561 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors lifted its holdings in Shell by 58.5% in the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 8,868 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $556,000 after purchasing an additional 3,274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cinctive Capital Management LP bought a new position in Shell in the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,797,000. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SHEL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Shell in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Piper Sandler reduced 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. UBS Group upgraded Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $80.10.

Shell Trading Down 8.1 %

Shares of SHEL opened at $64.13 on Friday. Shell plc has a twelve month low of $60.15 and a twelve 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 company’s fifty day simple moving average is $68.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $66.53. The company has a market cap of $193.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.78, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.27.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share (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%. As a group, analysts expect that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.47%. This is an increase from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.97%.

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.