The Royal Dutch Shell share price is struggling to find direction ahead of its second-quarter earnings. The RDSB stock is trading at 1,376p, where it has been in the past few days. This price is also in the same range where it was when the year started. Similarly, the BP share price is ay 290p, where it has been since last week.
Shell earnings. Thursday will be an important day for Royal Dutch Shell since the company will publish its second-quarter results and declare its dividend.
Analysts expect that the firm’s revenue rose to more than $57 billion in the second quarter. This will be a significant increase from the previous quarter’s $55.66 billion. They also predict that the firm’s earnings-per-share fell from $1.44 to $1.16. Still, there is a possibility that the company did even better in Q2 because of the strong crude oil prices. Furthermore, according to FactSet, most companies that have already published their quarterly results did better than expected.
Still, the key catalyst for the Shell share price will be the company’s announcement on dividend. Some analysts believe that the fiem will hike its dividend again when it releases irs results. This is after it raised its dividend in August last year and April this year after it reported strong profitability. Early this month, the company announced that it would increase its distribution to 20% to 30% of total cash flow. So, what next for the Royal Dutch Shell share price?
In my last article, I compared BP and Shell and noted that Shell seemed like a better long-term investment. Now, turning to the 1D chart, we see that the stock remains below the key support at 1,280p and the resistance at 1,472p. At the same time, the shares are at the same level as the 50-day and 100-day moving averages.
Notably, this consolidation happened after the stock rose sharply from a low of 850p last November. As such, there is a possibility that the stock will bounce above the resistance at 1,472p after earnings. On the flip side, with so much positives priced in into earnings, we can’t rule out a situation where it moves below the support at 1,280p after earnings.
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