Causeway Capital Management LLC Trims Stock Position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Causeway Capital Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 97.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,132 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 325,502 shares during the period. Causeway Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Shell were worth $635,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of SHEL. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Shell in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $5,154,000. World Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Shell by 37.0% during the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,594 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $369,000 after buying an additional 1,512 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in shares of Shell in the 3rd quarter worth about $2,552,000. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Shell by 267.9% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 230,027 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $15,170,000 after acquiring an additional 167,502 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp boosted its stake in Shell by 23.7% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 105,674 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $6,969,000 after acquiring an additional 20,241 shares in the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Shell from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Wolfe Research raised Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Shell in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $77.73.

Shell Stock Performance

SHEL stock opened at $62.05 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $187.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.10. Shell plc has a 1 year low of $58.55 and a 1 year high of $74.61. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $67.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $66.20.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Shell plc will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a $0.716 dividend. This is a boost from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.62%. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.97%.

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.