Seamount Financial Group Inc. Purchases New Shares in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Seamount Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 3,896 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $244,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its position 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 buying an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC bought a new position in Shell in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new stake in Shell during the third quarter worth about $33,000. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in Shell during the third quarter worth $35,000. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Shell by 40.8% during the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 563 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on SHEL. Wolfe Research raised 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. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley raised Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $79.11.

Shell Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of Shell stock opened at $65.87 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $201.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.12, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54. 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 firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $64.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $67.17. Shell plc has a 12-month low of $60.15 and a 12-month high of $74.61.

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

Shell Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 positive change from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.78%.

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.