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How to buy Royal Dutch Shell stock
Own Royal Dutch Shell stock in just a few minutes.
Fact checked
Royal Dutch Shell plc is an oil & gas integrated business based in the US. Royal Dutch Shell shares (RDS-B) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars.
How to buy shares in Royal Dutch Shell
- Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
- Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
- Search for Royal Dutch Shell. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: RDS-B. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
- Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Royal Dutch Shell reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
- Decide on how many to buy. Weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Royal Dutch Shell, depending on your broker.
- Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Royal Dutch Shell. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.
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What's in this guide?
- RDS-B shares summary
- Compare share dealing platforms
- Is RDS-B stock a buy or sell?
- Stock performance over time
- Can I short RDS-B shares?
- Are RDS-B shares over-valued?
- Royal Dutch Shell's financials
- How volatile are RDS-B shares?
- Does Royal Dutch Shell pay a dividend?
- Have RDS-B shares ever split?
- Other common questions
Royal Dutch Shell share price
Use our graph to track the performance of RDS.B stocks over time.Royal Dutch Shell shares at a glance
Information last updated 2021-02-24.
| 52-week range | USD$18.5811 - USD$44.8308 |
|---|---|
| 50-day moving average | USD$37.0418 |
| 200-day moving average | USD$30.9176 |
| Wall St. target price | USD$51.67 |
| PE ratio | 12.5685 |
| Dividend yield | USD$0.653 (1.67%) |
| Earnings per share (TTM) | USD$2.446 |
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The value of any investment can go up or down depending on news, trends and market conditions. We are not investment advisers, so do your own due diligence to understand the risks before you invest.
Is it a good time to buy Royal Dutch Shell stock?
The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.
This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.
Is Royal Dutch Shell under- or over-valued?
Valuing Royal Dutch Shell stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Royal Dutch Shell's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.
Royal Dutch Shell's P/E ratio
Royal Dutch Shell's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 13x. In other words, Royal Dutch Shell shares trade at around 13x recent earnings.
That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.
Royal Dutch Shell's PEG ratio
Royal Dutch Shell's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 2.6112. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.
The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Royal Dutch Shell's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.
Royal Dutch Shell's EBITDA
Royal Dutch Shell's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$27.7 billion.
The EBITDA is a measure of a Royal Dutch Shell's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.
Royal Dutch Shell financials
| Revenue TTM | USD$180.5 billion |
|---|---|
| Operating margin TTM | 1.07% |
| Gross profit TTM | USD$39.5 billion |
| Return on assets TTM | 0.31% |
| Return on equity TTM | -12.34% |
| Profit margin | -12.01% |
| Book value | $39.902 |
| Market capitalisation | USD$154.4 billion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Shorting Royal Dutch Shell shares
There are currently 1.2 million Royal Dutch Shell shares held short by investors – that's known as Royal Dutch Shell's "short interest". This figure is 2.9% down from 1.2 million last month.
There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Royal Dutch Shell shares can be evaluated.
Royal Dutch Shell's "short interest ratio" (SIR)
Royal Dutch Shell's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Royal Dutch Shell shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Royal Dutch Shell shares traded daily (recently around 2.9 million). Royal Dutch Shell's SIR currently stands at 0.41. In other words for every 100,000 Royal Dutch Shell shares traded daily on the market, roughly 410 shares are currently held short.
However Royal Dutch Shell's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Royal Dutch Shell shares, or, against the total number of tradable Royal Dutch Shell shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Royal Dutch Shell's short interest could be expressed as 0% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Royal Dutch Shell shares in existence, roughly 0 shares are currently held short) or 0% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Royal Dutch Shell shares, roughly 0 shares are currently held short).
Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Royal Dutch Shell.
Find out more about how you can short Royal Dutch Shell stock.
Royal Dutch Shell share dividends
Dividend payout ratio: 210.65% of net profits
Recently Royal Dutch Shell has paid out, on average, around 210.65% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 3.53% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Royal Dutch Shell shareholders could enjoy a 3.53% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Royal Dutch Shell's case, that would currently equate to about $0.653 per share.
Royal Dutch Shell's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.
Royal Dutch Shell's most recent dividend payout was on 29 March 2021. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 18 February 2021 (the "ex-dividend date").
Have Royal Dutch Shell's shares ever split?
Royal Dutch Shell's shares were split on a 100:116 basis on 20 July 2005. So if you had owned 116 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 100 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Royal Dutch Shell shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 16% higher share price could have impacted the market appetite for Royal Dutch Shell shares which in turn could have impacted Royal Dutch Shell's share price.
Royal Dutch Shell share price volatility
Over the last 12 months, Royal Dutch Shell's shares have ranged in value from as little as $18.5811 up to $44.8308. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".
Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Royal Dutch Shell's is 0.9952. This would suggest that Royal Dutch Shell's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).
Royal Dutch Shell overview
Royal Dutch Shell plc operates as an energy and petrochemical company worldwide. The company operates through Integrated Gas, Upstream, and Downstream 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 necessary to deliver gas to market. The company also markets and trades natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), crude oil, electricity, carbon-emission rights; and markets and sells LNG as a fuel for heavy-duty vehicles and marine vessels. In addition, it trades in and refines crude oil and other feed stocks, such as gasoline, diesel, heating oil, aviation fuel, marine fuel, biofuel, lubricants, bitumen, and sulphur; produces and sells petrochemicals industrial use; and manages oil sands activities. Further, the company produces base chemicals comprising ethylene, propylene, and aromatics, as well as intermediate chemicals, such as styrene monomer, propylene oxide, solvents, detergent alcohols, ethylene oxide, and ethylene glycol. Royal Dutch Shell plc was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands.
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