Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,080,000 shares, a decrease of 15.9% from the August 31st total of 7,230,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,570,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.7 days. Currently, 0.2% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Shell

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SHEL. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Shell in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Triad Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Shell during the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Shell by 611.1% in the 4th quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC now owns 448 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 385 shares during the period. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in Shell during the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Shell in the first quarter valued at $47,000. Institutional investors own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SHEL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Shell from $88.00 to $84.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Scotiabank cut their price target on Shell from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Shell in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Argus lifted their target price on shares of Shell from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, Berenberg Bank upgraded shares of Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $83.50.

Shell Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of SHEL stock traded up $0.77 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $66.11. 4,086,283 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,027,927. The stock has a market cap of $206.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.20, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.57. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $70.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $70.73. Shell has a fifty-two week low of $60.34 and a fifty-two week high of $74.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

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

Shell Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were given a $0.688 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $2.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.16%. 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.