Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. Sells 4,628 Shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. reduced its position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 5.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 81,442 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 4,628 shares during the period. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc.’s holdings in Shell were worth $5,103,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Cozad Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Shell by 17.8% in the fourth quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,094 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $570,000 after purchasing an additional 1,373 shares in the last quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Shell by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC now owns 189,310 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $11,860,000 after buying an additional 3,533 shares during the period. Patten & Patten Inc. TN boosted its stake in Shell by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. Patten & Patten Inc. TN now owns 4,818 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $302,000 after buying an additional 635 shares during the period. one8zero8 LLC bought a new stake in Shell during the fourth quarter valued at $207,000. Finally, Choate Investment Advisors boosted its stake in Shell by 119.0% during the fourth quarter. Choate Investment Advisors now owns 7,500 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $470,000 after buying an additional 4,076 shares during the period. 28.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SHEL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley raised Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group raised Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Shell has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.11.

Shell Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE:SHEL opened at $68.78 on Monday. Shell plc has a 52-week low of $60.15 and a 52-week high of $74.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $209.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $66.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $66.21. 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 earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.74 by ($0.54). Shell had a return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 5.57%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $0.716 dividend. This is an increase from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.97%.

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.