Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong Co Ltd Takes $2.95 Million Position in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong Co Ltd bought a new stake in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 47,000 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,945,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. CoreFirst Bank & Trust acquired a new position in shares of Shell in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its stake in Shell by 930.2% in the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 443 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Human Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Shell in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in Shell during the third quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new stake in Shell in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. TD Cowen started coverage on Shell in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $81.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group upgraded shares of Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley upgraded Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Shell currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.48.

Shell Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of SHEL stock opened at $71.33 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $215.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.21, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47. Shell plc has a twelve month low of $60.15 and a twelve month high of $74.61. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average price of $67.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $66.24.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 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%. Research analysts forecast that Shell plc will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $0.716 dividend. This is a boost from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.02%. Shell’s payout ratio 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.