Leuthold Group LLC Lowers Stake in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Leuthold Group LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 0.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 113,672 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 468 shares during the quarter. Leuthold Group LLC’s holdings in Shell were worth $7,621,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Shell by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 770,814 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $49,630,000 after purchasing an additional 28,396 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Shell in the 3rd quarter valued at $2,871,000. Creative Planning boosted its position in Shell by 41.3% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 259,414 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $16,701,000 after purchasing an additional 75,857 shares during the period. OLD National Bancorp IN increased its holdings in Shell by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 23,979 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,544,000 after purchasing an additional 796 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Graham Capital Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Shell during the third quarter worth about $1,553,000. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Shell from $91.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 21st. TD Securities increased their price target on Shell from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Argus lifted their price objective on Shell from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.25.

Shell Stock Performance

SHEL stock traded up $0.29 during trading on Friday, hitting $73.26. 1,015,929 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,263,999. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $71.58 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $68.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. Shell plc has a 52 week low of $59.51 and a 52 week high of $74.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $231.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.59.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The energy company reported $2.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.87 by $0.51. Shell had a return on equity of 13.83% and a net margin of 5.83%. The company had revenue of $74.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.03 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Shell plc will post 8.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were given a dividend of $0.688 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.76%. This is a positive change from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.74%.

Shell 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.