First Foundation Advisors Reduces Stake in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

First Foundation Advisors lowered its position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 33.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,007 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 2,026 shares during the quarter. First Foundation Advisors’ holdings in Shell were worth $251,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Shell by 11.3% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 12,183 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $803,000 after buying an additional 1,240 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in Shell in the third quarter valued at $5,154,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its position in Shell by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 151,868 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $10,028,000 after purchasing an additional 8,499 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Shell by 37.0% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,594 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $369,000 after acquiring an additional 1,512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in shares of Shell in the 3rd quarter valued at $2,552,000. 28.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on SHEL. Scotiabank dropped their target price on Shell from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Shell in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Shell in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price target 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $77.73.

Shell Trading Up 3.8 %

Shares of SHEL stock opened at $62.05 on Friday. Shell plc has a twelve month low of $58.55 and a twelve month high of $74.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The business’s 50 day moving average is $67.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $66.20. The company has a market capitalization 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.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 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%. Equities analysts forecast 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $0.716 per share. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.62%. This is an increase from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio 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.