Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Grows Position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 13.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,310 shares of the energy company’s stock after acquiring an additional 502 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Shell were worth $284,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC lifted its stake 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 worth $1,872,666,000 after purchasing an additional 6,554,340 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Shell by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 22,871,131 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,504,920,000 after acquiring an additional 477,432 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Shell by 4.3% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,356,191 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $602,352,000 after purchasing an additional 384,967 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Shell by 10.7% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Shell by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 3,939,739 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $253,640,000 after purchasing an additional 61,583 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. TheStreet raised Shell from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. TD Securities boosted their target price on shares of Shell from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Shell from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Shell currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.50.

Shell Stock Performance

Shares of SHEL stock opened at $73.55 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The company has a market capitalization of $236.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.59. The business’s 50 day moving average is $69.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $66.18. Shell plc has a 12-month low of $55.78 and a 12-month high of $73.94.

Shell Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a $0.688 dividend. This represents a $2.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.74%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This is an increase from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.74%.

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.