Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Shares Sold by Kovack Advisors Inc.

Kovack Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 2.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,141 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 187 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Shell were worth $510,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Equity Investment Corp boosted its stake in shares of Shell by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 1,023,439 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $64,118,000 after acquiring an additional 10,795 shares in the last quarter. Heritage Investors Management Corp boosted its stake in shares of Shell by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Heritage Investors Management Corp now owns 96,050 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $6,018,000 after acquiring an additional 872 shares in the last quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Shell during the 4th quarter worth about $138,000. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Shell by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC now owns 5,900 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $370,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Argonautica Private Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Shell by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Argonautica Private Wealth Management Inc. now owns 6,355 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $398,000 after buying an additional 342 shares in the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on SHEL shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target 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. UBS Group upgraded shares of Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $66.50 to $79.80 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $79.11.

Shell Stock Performance

NYSE:SHEL opened at $67.42 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $65.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.71. The company has a market cap of $205.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.43, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 plc has a 52 week low of $60.15 and a 52 week high of $74.61.

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 anticipate that Shell plc will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $0.716 per share. This is a boost from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Shell’s 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.