Shell (NYSE:SHEL) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of Shell (NYSE:SHEL) to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Wednesday, Zacks.com reports.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Shell in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. They issued a peer perform rating for the company. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Shell to a moderate buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Shell from $88.00 to $84.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Argus upped 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 raised Shell to a strong-buy rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Shell has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $83.50.

Shell Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Shell stock opened at $68.46 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $70.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $70.78. Shell has a 12-month low of $60.34 and a 12-month high of $74.61. 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 stock has a market cap of $216.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.63, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.57.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The energy company reported $1.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.15. Shell had a return on equity of 14.56% and a net margin of 5.97%. 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 company posted $1.50 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Shell will post 8.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Announces Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Shell

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of SHEL. Empyrean Capital Partners LP acquired a new stake in shares of Shell in the second quarter valued at about $151,578,000. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD grew its holdings in shares of Shell by 83.2% in the 1st quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 2,187,872 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $146,675,000 after acquiring an additional 993,342 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Shell by 13.0% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its holdings in Shell by 65.7% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,698,247 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $122,579,000 after purchasing an additional 673,624 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Senator Investment Group LP acquired a new stake in Shell in the first quarter valued at $42,775,000. 28.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.