Park National Corp OH Sells 4,270 Shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Park National Corp OH trimmed its stake in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL - Free Report) by 15.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,165 shares of the energy company's stock after selling 4,270 shares during the quarter. Park National Corp OH's holdings in Shell were worth $1,698,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC boosted its position in Shell by 32.3% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 86,417,177 shares of the energy company's stock worth $5,414,036,000 after purchasing an additional 21,118,234 shares during the period. Voloridge Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Shell by 170.3% during the 4th quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 3,463,372 shares of the energy company's stock worth $216,980,000 after buying an additional 2,182,253 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Shell during the 4th quarter worth about $91,716,000. Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new stake in shares of Shell during the 4th quarter worth about $83,204,000. Finally, Merewether Investment Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of Shell by 46.5% during the fourth quarter. Merewether Investment Management LP now owns 2,262,997 shares of the energy company's stock worth $141,777,000 after acquiring an additional 718,233 shares during the period. 28.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on SHEL shares. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Shell from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Shell in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Shell from $83.00 to $80.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Shell in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $78.35.

Shell Price Performance

NYSE:SHEL traded down $0.20 on Friday, hitting $66.24. The company had a trading volume of 3,432,149 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,300,269. Shell plc has a 52 week low of $58.55 and a 52 week high of $74.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $197.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.20, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.38. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $66.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $65.81.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, May 2nd. The energy company reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $69.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $79.18 billion. Shell had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 12.75%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.40 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Shell plc will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Shell announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Friday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $3.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the energy company to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Shell Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a $0.716 dividend. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Shell's payout ratio is 65.90%.

Shell 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.