Traders Buy High Volume of Shell Call Options (NYSE:SHEL)

by · The Markets Daily

Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL – Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock traders purchased 20,796 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 148% compared to the typical volume of 8,370 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Wolfe Research upgraded Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Shell has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $79.11.

Get Our Latest Report on SHEL

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Shell

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SHEL. Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Shell by 930.2% during the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 443 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. CoreFirst Bank & Trust bought a new position in Shell during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Human Investing LLC bought a new position in Shell during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new position in Shell during the third quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Transce3nd LLC bought a new position in Shell during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. 28.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Shell Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE SHEL traded up $1.02 on Friday, reaching $68.76. 2,614,884 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,940,427. Shell has a fifty-two week low of $60.15 and a fifty-two week high of $74.61. The company has a 50 day moving average of $66.35 and a 200 day moving average of $66.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $209.10 billion, a PE ratio of 13.69, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share 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%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Shell will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.716 per share. This is a boost from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Shell’s dividend payout ratio is 56.97%.

Shell Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

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