Cary Street Partners Financial LLC Purchases Shares of 80,555 Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Cary Street Partners Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 80,555 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,047,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SHEL. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Shell by 51.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,463 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $468,000 after acquiring an additional 2,545 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in Shell by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 33,168 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $2,078,000 after purchasing an additional 301 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Shell by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 199,856 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $12,521,000 after buying an additional 14,937 shares in the last quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC raised its position in shares of Shell by 15.8% in the 4th quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC now owns 29,560 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,852,000 after buying an additional 4,028 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Shell by 266.1% during the 4th quarter. Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. now owns 122,030 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $7,645,000 after acquiring an additional 88,700 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Shell Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of SHEL opened at $65.11 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $195.85 billion, a PE ratio of 12.97, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.38. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $66.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $65.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Shell plc has a 12 month low of $58.55 and a 12 month high of $74.61.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 2nd. The energy company reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $69.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $79.18 billion. Shell had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 12.75%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.40 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Shell announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Friday, May 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $3.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the energy company to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Shell Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.716 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.40%. Shell’s payout ratio is currently 65.90%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on SHEL shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Shell from $83.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Shell in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Shell from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. UBS Group raised shares of Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Shell in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.35.

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.