Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Cuts Stake in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 7.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,055 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 865 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in Shell were worth $798,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Childress Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Shell by 198.9% during the second quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC now owns 21,490 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,551,000 after acquiring an additional 14,300 shares during the last quarter. Columbia Asset Management grew its position in Shell by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Columbia Asset Management now owns 50,282 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $3,629,000 after purchasing an additional 2,345 shares during the last quarter. Hudock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Shell in the second quarter worth $219,000. SouthState Corp lifted its stake in shares of Shell by 1.3% during the second quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 85,676 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $6,184,000 after buying an additional 1,068 shares during the period. Finally, Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. grew its holdings in shares of Shell by 1.5% during the second quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 16,772 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,211,000 after buying an additional 241 shares during the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SHEL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised Shell to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Berenberg Bank raised Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Shell from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Shell from $91.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Argus raised their target price on shares of Shell from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Shell presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.00.

Shell Trading Down 1.8 %

Shell stock opened at $66.91 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm has a market cap of $211.57 billion, a PE ratio of 12.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.57. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $72.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $70.29. Shell plc has a 12 month low of $60.34 and a 12 month high of $74.61.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The energy company reported $1.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.15. Shell had a net margin of 5.97% and a return on equity of 14.56%. The company had revenue of $75.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.50 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Shell plc will post 8.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Shell Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.688 per share. This represents a $2.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16th. Shell’s payout ratio is 50.74%.

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.