Toronto Dominion Bank Trims Stock Position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Toronto Dominion Bank lessened its stake in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 3.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 12,270 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 465 shares during the quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank’s holdings in Shell were worth $768,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Shell by 32.3% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 86,417,177 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $5,414,036,000 after buying an additional 21,118,234 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Shell by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,938,735 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,562,412,000 after buying an additional 408,088 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Shell by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,982,817 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $500,123,000 after buying an additional 238,705 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Shell by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,023,173 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $377,352,000 after buying an additional 50,228 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Shell by 20.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,101,330 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $194,298,000 after purchasing an additional 519,105 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Shell Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of Shell stock opened at $66.26 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $199.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.20, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.35. Shell plc has a one year low of $58.55 and a one year high of $74.46. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $66.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $65.84.

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

Shell declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Friday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $3.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the energy company to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Shell Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid 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 dividend yield of 4.32%. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.90%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on SHEL. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Shell from $72.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Shell from $83.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Shell from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Shell currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $78.35.

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.