Bank of Montreal Can Boosts Stock Holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Bank of Montreal Can lifted its position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 3.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 707,033 shares of the energy company’s stock after buying an additional 24,888 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can’s holdings in Shell were worth $44,296,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Shell by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. now owns 9,518 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $596,000 after buying an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. Foster Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Shell by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 3,393 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $213,000 after buying an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. Titleist Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Shell by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Titleist Asset Management LLC now owns 5,526 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Shell by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,268 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $205,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Klingman & Associates LLC boosted its stake in Shell by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 3,421 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $214,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares in 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 research firms recently commented on SHEL. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Shell in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Shell in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.98.

Shell Price Performance

NYSE:SHEL opened at $63.96 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The firm has a market cap of $193.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $67.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $66.31. Shell plc has a 1-year low of $58.55 and a 1-year high of $74.61.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.74 by ($0.54). Shell had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 12.75%. Equities research analysts forecast that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $0.716 dividend. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. Shell’s payout ratio is presently 56.97%.

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.