Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Short Interest Up 14.8% in January

Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,840,000 shares, a growth of 14.8% from the January 15th total of 5,960,000 shares. Approximately 0.2% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 4,220,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.6 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Shell

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. grew its stake in Shell by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. now owns 9,518 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $596,000 after buying an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. Foster Group Inc. grew its stake in Shell by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 3,393 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $213,000 after buying an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Shell by 40.8% during the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 563 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. Titleist Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Shell by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Titleist Asset Management LLC now owns 5,526 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Warther Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in Shell by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,268 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $205,000 after buying an additional 169 shares during the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Shell Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Shell stock traded down $0.22 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $67.16. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,934,808 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,037,361. Shell has a 1-year low of $60.15 and a 1-year high of $74.61. The business has a fifty day moving average of $64.56 and a 200 day moving average of $66.89. The company has a market capitalization of $205.33 billion, a PE ratio of 13.38, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 5.57%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Shell will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.716 per share. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.26%. This is a positive change from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on SHEL shares. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $79.11.

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.