Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Buys 561 Shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 14.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,451 shares of the energy company’s stock after buying an additional 561 shares during the quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Shell were worth $279,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of SHEL. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Shell during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $91,716,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Shell by 1.7% during the fourth 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. National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in shares of Shell by 236.4% in the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 445,422 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $27,906,000 after buying an additional 313,018 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of Shell by 16,663.4% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 307,440 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $19,261,000 after acquiring an additional 305,606 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Shell by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,982,817 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $500,123,000 after acquiring an additional 238,705 shares in the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Shell Stock Down 8.1 %

Shares of Shell stock opened at $64.13 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Shell plc has a twelve month low of $59.44 and a twelve month high of $74.61. The company has a market cap of $193.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.27. The company’s 50 day moving average is $68.12 and its 200 day moving average is $66.52.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by ($0.54). Shell had a return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 5.57%. Research analysts anticipate that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $0.716 dividend. This is an increase from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.47%. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.97%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on SHEL shares. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Shell in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. TD Cowen started coverage on Shell in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $81.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley raised Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Shell from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $80.10.

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.