Shell (NYSE:SHEL) Upgraded to “Hold” at Citigroup

Citigroup upgraded shares of Shell (NYSE:SHEL) to a hold rating in a report issued on Wednesday, Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on SHEL. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Shell from $88.00 to $84.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Shell in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. They set a peer perform rating for the company. Scotiabank dropped their price target on Shell from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a sector outperform rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Argus boosted their price objective on Shell from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, Barclays raised Shell to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Shell presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $83.50.

Shell Price Performance

NYSE:SHEL opened at $68.51 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $69.93 and a 200-day moving average price of $70.83. Shell has a 1-year low of $60.34 and a 1-year high of $74.61. The firm has a market cap of $216.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The energy company reported $1.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.15. Shell had a net margin of 5.97% and a return on equity of 14.56%. The business had revenue of $75.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $88.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.50 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Shell will post 8.44 EPS for the current year.

Shell Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a $0.688 dividend. This represents a $2.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.02%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.74%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Shell

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Shell by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 22,823,227 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,501,768,000 after buying an additional 429,528 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Shell by 0.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 22,722,317 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,640,082,000 after purchasing an additional 96,549 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Shell by 13.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,715,078 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $450,180,000 after purchasing an additional 772,736 shares during the period. Westwood Global Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Shell by 4.1% in the second quarter. Westwood Global Investments LLC now owns 2,546,523 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $183,808,000 after purchasing an additional 100,379 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Shell by 6.4% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,248,366 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $162,287,000 after buying an additional 136,139 shares in the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.