First Trust Advisors LP Has $8.53 Million Stock Holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 105.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 136,134 shares of the energy company’s stock after purchasing an additional 69,929 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Shell were worth $8,529,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in SHEL. First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. increased its holdings in Shell by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. now owns 9,518 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $596,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. Foster Group Inc. increased its holdings in Shell by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 3,393 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $213,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. Titleist Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Shell by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Titleist Asset Management LLC now owns 5,526 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $346,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Shell by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,268 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $205,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Klingman & Associates LLC increased its holdings in Shell by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 3,421 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $214,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SHEL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group upgraded Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Shell in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wolfe Research upgraded Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Shell in a report on Friday, April 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.73.

Shell Stock Performance

NYSE SHEL opened at $66.01 on Tuesday. 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 fifty day moving average price is $67.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $65.94. Shell plc has a 1 year low of $58.55 and a 1 year high of $74.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $198.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.27.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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, research analysts anticipate that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were 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 yield of 4.34%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is 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.