Shell (NYSE:SHEL) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Melius Research

Melius Research assumed coverage on shares of Shell (NYSE:SHEL) in a research report report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage issued a hold rating and a $70.00 price target on the energy company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on SHEL. HSBC reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $78.30 price target (down previously from $78.90) on shares of Shell in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Shell from $80.00 to $79.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Hsbc Global Res cut Shell from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut Shell from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Melius initiated coverage on Shell in a research note on Wednesday. They issued a “hold” rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $76.71.

Shell Trading Up 0.8%

NYSE:SHEL opened at $72.0550 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.07. Shell has a fifty-two week low of $58.54 and a fifty-two week high of $74.18. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $71.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $68.51. The stock has a market cap of $211.71 billion, a PE ratio of 16.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.44.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The energy company reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.29. Shell had a return on equity of 10.67% and a net margin of 4.93%.The company had revenue of $66.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $69.31 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Shell will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Shell Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.716 per share. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is currently 64.41%.

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

Institutional Trading of Shell

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Shell by 51.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,463 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $468,000 after buying an additional 2,545 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Shell by 136.2% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 7,824 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $490,000 after buying an additional 4,512 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Shell by 4.4% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 19,323 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,401,000 after buying an additional 815 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Shell by 2.7% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 908,572 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $66,580,000 after buying an additional 23,680 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Shell by 100.9% during the first quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 11,534 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $845,000 after buying an additional 5,794 shares during the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.