Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Shell (NYSE:SHEL) Price Target to $80.00

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) had its price objective reduced by investment analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $83.00 to $80.00 in a research report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the energy company’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 22.75% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on SHEL. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Shell in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. TD Securities reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Shell in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Shell in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.35.

Shell Stock Performance

SHEL opened at $65.17 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $196.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.38. Shell has a 52-week low of $58.55 and a 52-week high of $74.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $66.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $65.87.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 2nd. The energy company reported $1.84 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.30. Shell had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 12.75%. The business had revenue of $69.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $79.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.40 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Shell will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shell announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Friday, May 2nd that permits the company to buyback $3.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the energy company to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Shell

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Shell by 32.3% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 86,417,177 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $5,414,036,000 after purchasing an additional 21,118,234 shares during the last quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Shell by 170.3% during the fourth quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 3,463,372 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $216,980,000 after buying an additional 2,182,253 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Shell in the 4th quarter worth $91,716,000. Freestone Grove Partners LP purchased a new position in shares of Shell during the 4th quarter worth $83,204,000. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund acquired a new position in shares of Shell during the 1st quarter valued at about $63,721,000. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.