Royal Dutch Shell share price is in focus today after the oil supermajor reported weak corporate earnings. The earnings came two days after BP also reported relatively weak results.
What happened: This week, oil and gas supermajors have been publishing their results. On Tuesday, BP reported its first annual loss in a decade because of the coronavirus. Also, ExxonMobil reported a $20 billion loss and last week, Chevron also reported weak earnings.
Today, Royal Dutch Shell, one of the biggest oil and gas companies, also released weak results. The company’s earnings dropped from $16.5 billion in 2019 to $4.85 billion in 2020. That was below the estimated $5.15 billion.
For the fourth quarter, Shell made $393 million in adjusted earnings, which was lower than the expected $470 million.
On a positive note for investors, the company decided to boost its dividend by 4% in the quarter. That’s after the firm slashed the payout last year to preserve cash. The CEO said:
“We are coming out of 2020 with a stronger balance sheet, ready to accelerate our strategy and make the future of energy. We are committed to our progressive dividend policy and expect to grow our US dollar dividend per share by around 4% as of the first quarter 2021.”
The Shell (B) share price rose today after the company decided to boost its dividend. The shares are trading at 1,272p, which is slightly above the lower line of the widening channel on the daily chart. The price is still slightly below the 25-day and 15-day exponential moving averages while the RSI is showing a bearish divergence pattern.
Therefore, the pair will likely rise in the near term as bulls target the upper side of the channel at 1,450p. However, another move below yesterday’s low of 1,225p will invalidate this trend.
