Share Buyback Plan Announced by Shell (NYSE:SHEL) Board

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Friday, May 2nd, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $3.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the energy company to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley raised Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $66.50 to $79.80 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Shell in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Shell in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Shell from $87.00 to $83.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price target on Shell from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $77.73.

Shell Stock Up 2.9 %

NYSE:SHEL opened at $66.67 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $66.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $65.89. The company has a market cap of $200.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.28, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.38. Shell has a 52-week low of $58.55 and a 52-week high of $74.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.35.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 2nd. The energy company reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $79.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.40 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Shell will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

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.