Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Increases Dividend to $0.72 Per Share

Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 31st,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of 0.716 per share by the energy company on Monday, March 24th. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69.

Shell has a payout ratio of 34.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Shell to earn $7.27 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.75 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.8%.

Shell Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:SHEL traded down $0.84 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $65.82. 5,154,893 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,423,974. Shell has a 12 month low of $60.15 and a 12 month high of $74.61. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $64.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.41. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $201.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.46 and a beta of 0.55.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 5.17% and a return on equity of 14.54%. On average, equities analysts expect that Shell will post 8.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SHEL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research raised Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, January 3rd. UBS Group upgraded Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Shell from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.11.

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.