Shell (NYSE:SHEL) Now Covered by Melius

Melius began coverage on shares of Shell (NYSE:SHEL) in a research note published on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. The firm issued a hold rating and a $70.00 price objective on the energy company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on SHEL. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Shell in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Hsbc Global Res lowered Shell from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. HSBC reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $78.30 target price (down previously from $78.90) on shares of Shell in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Shell from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Santander lowered Shell to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Shell currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $76.71.

Shell Trading Up 0.8%

NYSE:SHEL opened at $72.0550 on Wednesday. Shell has a fifty-two week low of $58.54 and a fifty-two week high of $74.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $211.71 billion, a PE ratio of 16.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.44. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $71.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $68.51.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The energy company reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.29. Shell had a return on equity of 10.67% and a net margin of 4.93%.The business had revenue of $66.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $69.31 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Shell will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Shell Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.716 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.0%. Shell’s payout ratio is 64.41%.

Shell declared that its board has authorized a stock 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Old North State Trust LLC acquired a new position in shares of Shell during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $372,000. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its holdings in shares of Shell by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 137,086 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $9,652,000 after acquiring an additional 7,179 shares during the last quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Shell by 31.6% during the 2nd quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,900 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $838,000 after acquiring an additional 2,857 shares during the last quarter. AllSquare Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Shell by 38.3% during the 2nd quarter. AllSquare Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,150 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $292,000 after acquiring an additional 1,150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Seven Mile Advisory increased its holdings in shares of Shell by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Seven Mile Advisory now owns 5,572 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $392,000 after acquiring an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.