Shell (NYSE:SHEL) Stock Rating Upgraded by Citigroup

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) was upgraded by equities researchers at Citigroup to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday, Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on SHEL. Barclays upgraded Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Shell to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Shell in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Shell from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Berenberg Bank upgraded Shell to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $83.50.

Shell Stock Performance

Shares of Shell stock opened at $68.46 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $216.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.63, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.57. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $70.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $70.78. Shell has a 12 month low of $60.34 and a 12 month high of $74.61.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The energy company reported $1.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.15. Shell had a net margin of 5.97% and a return on equity of 14.56%. The business had revenue of $75.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $88.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.50 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Shell will post 8.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Shell

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SHEL. United Community Bank lifted its position in shares of Shell by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. United Community Bank now owns 3,315 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $222,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Shell by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 11,097 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $801,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Shell by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 4,223 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $283,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Lester Murray Antman dba SimplyRich lifted its position in shares of Shell by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Lester Murray Antman dba SimplyRich now owns 26,743 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,793,000 after acquiring an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sax Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Shell by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,086 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $295,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. 28.60% of the stock is 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.