Shell PLC Unsponsored ADR (NYSE:SHEL) Given Average Recommendation of "Buy" by Brokerages

Shell PLC Unsponsored ADR (NYSE:SHEL - Get Free Report) has received an average rating of "Buy" from the fourteen research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have given a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $78.11.

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Shell from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Hsbc Global Res raised Shell to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. TD Securities reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Shell in a research report on Friday, April 4th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Shell from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Shell in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Shell

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SHEL. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in Shell by 51.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,463 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $468,000 after buying an additional 2,545 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Shell by 14.4% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 18,508 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $1,197,000 after buying an additional 2,327 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its stake in Shell by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 33,168 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $2,078,000 after buying an additional 301 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC lifted its stake in Shell by 12.9% in the fourth quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 37,796 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $2,368,000 after buying an additional 4,328 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT lifted its stake in Shell by 52.5% in the fourth quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 15,704 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $984,000 after buying an additional 5,408 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.60% of the company's stock.

Shell Trading Up 2.2%

NYSE SHEL traded up $1.56 during trading on Monday, hitting $71.00. The stock had a trading volume of 5,058,616 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,450,610. The company has a market capitalization of $211.09 billion, a PE ratio of 16.36, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $67.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $66.47. Shell has a twelve month low of $58.55 and a twelve month high of $74.46.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 2nd. The energy company reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $69.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $79.18 billion. Shell had a return on equity of 11.71% and a net margin of 4.75%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.40 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Shell will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Shell declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Friday, May 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $3.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the energy company to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Shell Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th were issued a $0.716 dividend. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 16th. Shell's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.90%.

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.