Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Shares Sold by Senator Investment Group LP

Senator Investment Group LP decreased its position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL - Free Report) by 97.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,129 shares of the energy company's stock after selling 488,871 shares during the quarter. Senator Investment Group LP's holdings in Shell were worth $697,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SHEL. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. boosted its holdings in Shell by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 153,270 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $9,604,000 after purchasing an additional 3,430 shares in the last quarter. Transce3nd LLC purchased a new position in shares of Shell in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. MML Investors Services LLC raised its stake in Shell by 18.3% during the 4th quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 149,983 shares of the energy company's stock worth $9,396,000 after acquiring an additional 23,162 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in Shell by 105.6% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 136,134 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $8,529,000 after acquiring an additional 69,929 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Forum Financial Management LP increased its position in shares of Shell by 28.3% during the fourth quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 40,916 shares of the energy company's stock worth $2,563,000 after purchasing an additional 9,028 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.60% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on SHEL. UBS Group upgraded shares of Shell from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Shell in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Shell from $87.00 to $83.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Wolfe Research raised Shell from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on Shell from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $77.73.

Shell Price Performance

SHEL traded up $0.77 on Friday, hitting $65.82. 2,439,311 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,311,479. The business's fifty day moving average is $67.13 and its 200 day moving average is $66.01. Shell plc has a fifty-two week low of $58.55 and a fifty-two week high of $74.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $197.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.27.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL - Get Free Report) last released 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $0.716 per share. This is an increase from Shell's previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Shell's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.97%.

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.