Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Shares Bought by Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its stake in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 10.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 94,441 shares of the energy company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,815 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Shell were worth $5,917,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. CoreFirst Bank & Trust acquired a new position in Shell in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Human Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Shell in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in shares of Shell during the third quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new position in Shell during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. 28.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on SHEL. TD Securities boosted their target price on Shell from $81.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Shell in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Shell from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $80.10.

Shell Stock Performance

Shell stock opened at $72.74 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.35. Shell plc has a fifty-two week low of $60.15 and a fifty-two week high of $74.61. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $67.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $66.42. The company has a market capitalization of $219.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.49, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last announced its 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 net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 12.75%. On average, analysts anticipate that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $0.716 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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 3.94%. Shell’s payout ratio 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.