Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Shares Sold by Leavell Investment Management Inc.

Leavell Investment Management Inc. cut its holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 22.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 20,990 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 5,932 shares during the quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Shell were worth $1,315,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Shell by 5.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 65,298,943 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $4,306,465,000 after purchasing an additional 3,255,347 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Shell by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,530,647 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,617,796,000 after purchasing an additional 507,311 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Shell by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,972,945 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $408,430,000 after buying an additional 55,637 shares during the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. increased its position in Shell by 8.7% during the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 5,282,868 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $348,405,000 after buying an additional 422,329 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Shell by 29.8% in the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 3,773,617 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $248,870,000 after acquiring an additional 866,954 shares during the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Shell Trading Down 0.9 %

SHEL stock opened at $66.75 on Thursday. Shell plc has a 52 week low of $60.15 and a 52 week high of $74.61. The company has a market cap of $204.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.30, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $67.00.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Shell plc will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.716 per share. This is an increase from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Shell’s payout ratio is currently 54.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.