Shell Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:SHEL)

Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock investors purchased 30,798 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 337% compared to the typical volume of 7,051 call options.

Shell Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE SHEL opened at $72.64 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.42. Shell has a fifty-two week low of $55.78 and a fifty-two week high of $73.94. The stock has a market cap of $233.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.59. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $69.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.13.

Shell Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a $0.688 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.79%. This is a positive change from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.74%.

Institutional Trading of Shell

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Shell by 29.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,087,703 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,872,666,000 after buying an additional 6,554,340 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Shell by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 22,871,131 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,504,920,000 after purchasing an additional 477,432 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Shell by 4.3% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,356,191 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $602,352,000 after purchasing an additional 384,967 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Shell by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,742,878 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $562,866,000 after buying an additional 848,104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Shell by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,173,651 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $406,226,000 after acquiring an additional 143,910 shares during the period. 28.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Shell from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. TD Securities increased their target price on shares of Shell from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of Shell from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Shell has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.50.

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.