Augustine Asset Management Inc. Trims Position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Augustine Asset Management Inc. cut its stake in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 104,099 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 2,053 shares during the quarter. Shell accounts for 1.7% of Augustine Asset Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Augustine Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Shell were worth $6,522,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of SHEL. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Shell by 51.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,463 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $468,000 after purchasing an additional 2,545 shares during the period. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC lifted its holdings in Shell by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 3,741 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $247,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the period. HF Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 4,028 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Shell by 1.5% during the third quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 3,125,284 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $206,116,000 after acquiring an additional 46,293 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. boosted its holdings in Shell by 266.1% in the fourth 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. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley upgraded 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 report on Tuesday, January 7th. 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 research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, January 3rd. One research 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $79.11.

Shell Trading Up 1.9 %

NYSE SHEL opened at $67.40 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $64.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $67.03. 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 cap of $206.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.43, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54. Shell plc has a 12 month low of $60.15 and a 12 month high of $74.61.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Shell plc will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $0.716 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.25%. Shell’s dividend payout ratio 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.