TD Securities Increases Shell (NYSE:SHEL) Price Target to $81.00

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) had its price objective boosted by TD Securities from $74.00 to $81.00 in a research note published on Friday, BayStreet.CA reports. They currently have a buy rating on the energy company’s stock.

Separately, TheStreet raised Shell from a c rating to a b- rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $66.50.

Shell Stock Performance

SHEL traded up $0.26 during trading on Friday, reaching $72.37. 4,407,390 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,739,239. Shell has a fifty-two week low of $55.78 and a fifty-two week high of $73.94. The company has a market capitalization of $232.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.35, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $68.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $66.05.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The energy company reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $80.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.59 billion. Shell had a net margin of 5.83% and a return on equity of 13.78%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.76 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Shell will post 8.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.688 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This is a positive change from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $2.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.80%. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is 50.74%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Shell

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SHEL. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Shell by 29.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,087,703 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,872,666,000 after acquiring an additional 6,554,340 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Shell by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 22,871,131 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,504,920,000 after acquiring an additional 477,432 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Shell by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,356,191 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $602,352,000 after acquiring an additional 384,967 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Shell by 10.7% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,742,878 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $562,866,000 after purchasing an additional 848,104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of Shell by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,173,651 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $406,226,000 after purchasing an additional 143,910 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

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.