Banco Santander S.A. Has $5.15 Million Stake in Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)

Banco Santander S.A. reduced its position in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 3.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 82,138 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 3,237 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in Shell were worth $5,146,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Shell by 5.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 65,298,943 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $4,306,465,000 after purchasing an additional 3,255,347 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Shell by 1.7% in the 4th 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 last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Shell by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,972,945 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $408,430,000 after buying an additional 55,637 shares during the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Shell by 8.7% in the 3rd quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 5,282,868 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $348,405,000 after acquiring an additional 422,329 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP raised its holdings in Shell by 29.8% during the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 3,773,617 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $248,870,000 after acquiring an additional 866,954 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Wolfe Research raised Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised shares of 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 research report on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group raised shares of Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Shell currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.11.

Shell Stock Performance

SHEL opened at $66.80 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The company has a market capitalization of $203.16 billion, a PE ratio of 13.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $65.98 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.41. Shell plc has a 1 year low of $60.15 and a 1 year high of $74.61.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 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 expect that Shell plc will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $0.716 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.29%. This is an increase from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.