Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Grows Position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 90.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,521 shares of the energy company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,915 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Shell were worth $910,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Accredited Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Shell during the fourth quarter worth $56,000. Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Shell by 37.6% in the fourth quarter. Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC now owns 13,309 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $834,000 after buying an additional 3,636 shares in the last quarter. Sulzberger Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Shell during the 4th quarter worth approximately $231,000. Freestone Grove Partners LP acquired a new stake in shares of Shell in the 4th quarter worth approximately $83,204,000. Finally, Guardian Capital LP raised its holdings in Shell by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Guardian Capital LP now owns 311,009 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $19,485,000 after purchasing an additional 3,223 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on SHEL. UBS Group upgraded Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Shell in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Shell in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Shell from $83.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price target on Shell from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $77.35.

Shell Price Performance

SHEL opened at $65.17 on Wednesday. Shell plc has a 1 year low of $58.55 and a 1 year high of $74.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.35. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $66.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $196.05 billion, a PE ratio of 12.98, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.38.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 2nd. The energy company reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.30. Shell had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 12.75%. The company had revenue of $69.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $79.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.40 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Shell announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Friday, May 2nd that allows the company to buyback $3.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the energy company to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Shell Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.716 per share. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.39%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.90%.

Shell Company 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.