Shell (NYSE:SHEL) Downgraded to Market Perform Rating by Sanford C. Bernstein

Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Shell (NYSE:SHEL) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note released on Monday, Marketbeat reports.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on SHEL. TD Securities reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Shell in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Shell in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Shell from $72.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Shell from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Shell currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.26.

Shell Trading Down 1.5%

Shares of SHEL stock opened at $71.44 on Monday. Shell has a twelve month low of $58.55 and a twelve month high of $74.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The business’s 50 day moving average is $66.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $66.11. The company has a market capitalization of $213.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.39.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 2nd. The energy company reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.30. Shell had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 12.75%. The company had revenue of $69.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $79.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.40 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Shell will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Shell Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.716 per share. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.01%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.90%.

Shell announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Friday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $3.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the energy company to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Shell

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Shell by 32.3% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 86,417,177 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $5,414,036,000 after purchasing an additional 21,118,234 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Shell by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,938,735 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,562,412,000 after buying an additional 408,088 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Shell by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 23,272,913 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,705,430,000 after acquiring an additional 451,233 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Shell by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,982,817 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $500,123,000 after purchasing an additional 238,705 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Shell by 5.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,253,238 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $531,519,000 after purchasing an additional 352,569 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

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.