Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Short Interest Down 18.5% in February

Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) saw a significant decline in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 5,050,000 shares, a decline of 18.5% from the February 13th total of 6,200,000 shares. Approximately 0.2% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 4,190,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.2 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Shell

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its stake in Shell by 930.2% in the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 443 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. CoreFirst Bank & Trust purchased a new position in Shell during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Human Investing LLC bought a new stake in Shell during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Transce3nd LLC bought a new position in Shell in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of Shell during the 3rd quarter valued at $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group raised Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised 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 research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $79.11.

Shell Stock Performance

Shares of SHEL stock traded up $0.87 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $70.97. 5,306,595 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,952,139. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $66.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.19. Shell has a 52-week low of $60.15 and a 52-week high of $74.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $215.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.14, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.74 by ($0.54). Shell had a return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 5.57%. Research analysts predict that Shell will post 7.67 earnings per share 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 issued a $0.716 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.04%. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.97%.

Shell Company 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.