Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC Sells 276 Shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 5.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,718 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 276 shares during the period. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Shell were worth $310,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in SHEL. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Shell by 29.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,087,703 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,872,666,000 after purchasing an additional 6,554,340 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Shell by 162.9% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,763,562 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $113,538,000 after buying an additional 1,092,670 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Shell by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,742,878 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $562,866,000 after buying an additional 848,104 shares during the last quarter. L1 Capital Pty Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Shell by 188.7% in the 3rd quarter. L1 Capital Pty Ltd now owns 1,224,617 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $78,841,000 after buying an additional 800,365 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Shell by 7,154.1% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 785,622 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $50,578,000 after buying an additional 774,792 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Shell Stock Performance

NYSE SHEL opened at $72.38 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $232.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.40. Shell plc has a 52-week low of $55.78 and a 52-week high of $73.94. The company has a fifty day moving average of $68.43 and a 200-day moving average of $66.05.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The energy company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $80.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.59 billion. Shell had a return on equity of 13.78% and a net margin of 5.83%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.76 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Shell plc will post 8.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.688 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This is an increase from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $2.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.80%. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.74%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on SHEL. TD Securities boosted their target price on Shell from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. TheStreet upgraded Shell from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Shell from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.50.

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.