Shell (NYSE:SHEL) Upgraded at BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Shell (NYSE:SHEL) to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Tuesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

SHEL has been the subject of several other research reports. Melius started coverage on Shell in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $70.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Shell from $80.00 to $79.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Santander downgraded Shell to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded Shell from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Shell from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $76.71.

Shell Price Performance

Shares of SHEL opened at $72.87 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $212.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.46. Shell has a twelve month low of $58.54 and a twelve month high of $74.21. The company has a 50 day moving average of $72.21 and a 200-day moving average of $69.52. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The energy company reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $66.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $69.31 billion. Shell had a net margin of 4.93% and a return on equity of 10.67%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Shell will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $0.716 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 64.41%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Shell

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SHEL. GQG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Shell by 42,743.3% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 2,867,929 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $210,162,000 after buying an additional 2,861,235 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Shell during the first quarter worth $180,366,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Shell by 102.6% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 2,965,812 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $217,335,000 after buying an additional 1,501,866 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in shares of Shell by 2,096.7% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,217,115 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $89,190,000 after buying an additional 1,161,709 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Shell by 21.2% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,571,809 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $481,582,000 after buying an additional 1,150,198 shares in the last quarter. 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.