Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC Acquires New Holdings in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 100,000 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,265,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lloyd Harbor Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Shell during the 4th quarter worth approximately $20,048,000. Investor s Fiduciary Advisor Network LLC acquired a new stake in Shell in the 4th quarter valued at $728,000. Graham Capital Management L.P. acquired a new stake in Shell in the 4th quarter valued at $4,280,000. Focus Partners Wealth grew its position in Shell by 99.6% in the 4th quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 185,069 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $11,641,000 after purchasing an additional 92,364 shares during the period. Finally, Empyrean Capital Partners LP boosted its holdings in Shell by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. Empyrean Capital Partners LP now owns 2,300,000 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $144,095,000 after acquiring an additional 200,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on SHEL. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Shell in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Shell from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Shell in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Shell in a research note on Friday, April 4th. 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Shell currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.35.

Shell Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of SHEL opened at $66.36 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $66.75 and its 200-day moving average price is $65.84. Shell plc has a twelve month low of $58.55 and a twelve month high of $74.61. The stock has a market cap of $199.60 billion, a PE ratio of 13.22, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 2nd. The energy company reported $1.84 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.30. Shell had a return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 5.57%. The company had revenue of $69.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $79.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.40 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.716 per share. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Shell’s payout ratio is 65.90%.

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

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.