Seamount Financial Group Inc. Invests $244,000 in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Seamount Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 3,896 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $244,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Shell by 930.2% in the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 443 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Shell during the third quarter valued at $30,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new position in shares of Shell during the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new stake in Shell during the third quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Shell by 40.8% in the third quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 563 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on SHEL. UBS Group upgraded Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wolfe Research upgraded Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $66.50 to $79.80 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Shell presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.11.

Shell Stock Down 0.4 %

SHEL opened at $65.87 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.35. Shell plc has a 1 year low of $60.15 and a 1 year high of $74.61. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $64.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.17. The company has a market cap of $201.39 billion, a PE ratio of 13.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by ($0.54). Shell had a return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 5.57%. Sell-side analysts expect that Shell plc will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $0.716 dividend. This is a positive change from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.78%.

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.