Wells Fargo & Company Lowers Shell (NYSE:SHEL) Price Target to $79.00

Shell (NYSE:SHEL - Get Free Report) had its target price decreased by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $80.00 to $79.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an "overweight" rating on the energy company's stock. Wells Fargo & Company's price target points to a potential upside of 11.07% from the stock's current price.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on SHEL. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Shell to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Shell in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Scotiabank reduced 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. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Shell in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Shell from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Shell has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $78.11.

Shell Trading Up 2.4%

Shares of SHEL stock traded up $1.69 on Thursday, hitting $71.13. The stock had a trading volume of 2,049,437 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,441,202. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Shell has a twelve month low of $58.55 and a twelve month high of $74.46. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $67.39 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $66.43. The firm has a market cap of $211.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.39, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.39.

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

Shell declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Friday, May 2nd that allows the company to buyback $3.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the energy company to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Shell by 51.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,463 shares of the energy company's stock worth $468,000 after purchasing an additional 2,545 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Shell by 136.2% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 7,824 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $490,000 after buying an additional 4,512 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Shell by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 199,856 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $12,521,000 after acquiring an additional 14,937 shares during the period. Choate Investment Advisors lifted its position in Shell by 119.0% during the fourth quarter. Choate Investment Advisors now owns 7,500 shares of the energy company's stock worth $470,000 after acquiring an additional 4,076 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of Shell by 100.9% in the first quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 11,534 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $845,000 after purchasing an additional 5,794 shares during the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.

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