Cullen Investment Group LTD. Reduces Stake in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Cullen Investment Group LTD. reduced its position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 13.1% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 18,203 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 2,741 shares during the period. Cullen Investment Group LTD.’s holdings in Shell were worth $1,334,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of SHEL. Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its position in Shell by 930.2% during the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 443 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. CoreFirst Bank & Trust purchased a new position in Shell during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Human Investing LLC purchased a new position in Shell during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Transce3nd LLC purchased a new position in Shell during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new position in Shell during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. 28.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Shell from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Shell from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Shell from $83.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Shell in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Shell from $72.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $78.35.

Shell Price Performance

Shares of Shell stock opened at $66.07 on Thursday. Shell plc has a twelve month low of $58.55 and a twelve month high of $74.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.16, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.38. 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 fifty day moving average price is $66.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $65.81.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last issued its earnings results on Friday, May 2nd. The energy company reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.30. Shell had a return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 5.57%. The firm had revenue of $69.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $79.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.40 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Shell plc will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Shell Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.716 per share. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.33%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is presently 65.90%.

Shell declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Friday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $3.50 billion in outstanding 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 typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.