Banco Santander S.A. Has $5.15 Million Stock Holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Banco Santander S.A. lessened its holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 3.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 82,138 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 3,237 shares during the quarter. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in Shell were worth $5,146,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SHEL. Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its stake in Shell by 930.2% in the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 443 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Human Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Shell in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Shell during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in Shell in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its position in Shell by 567.0% in the third quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 627 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 533 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Shell Stock Performance

Shares of SHEL stock opened at $66.80 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Shell plc has a 52 week low of $60.15 and a 52 week high of $74.61. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $65.98 and a 200-day moving average of $66.41. The company has a market cap of $203.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 12.75%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Shell plc will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. This is a boost from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.29%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 56.97%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.