Royal Dutch Shell: One Year Later, Shareholders Are $50 Billion Poorer Despite Solid Results
Summary
- It has been one year since Royal Dutch Shell shocked equity markets with their hasty decision to heavily reduce their dividends given the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
- This time around they have provided a 4% dividend increase for the third straight quarter, along with a solid set of results that show a recovery is well underway.
- Despite their solid financial performance, their share price continues lagging that of their peers who sustained their dividends by a significant margin and thus makes their shareholders $50b poorer.
- Thankfully, it appears that their shareholder returns are poised to increase as soon as following the second quarter of 2021 since they are easily within reach of their $65b net debt goal.
- Given their continued strong financial performance and higher dividends, I believe that maintaining my very bullish rating is appropriate.