Proactive Investors - Shell PLC (LON:SHEL) shareholders are on tenterhooks as they await the oil supermajor’s first-quarter results, with the valuation question hanging heavy in the air.
Although Shell was recently edged out by AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) as Britain’s most valuable company, it's share price is still near allt-ime highs with a £185.1 billion market capitalisation.
Former Shell boss Ben van Beurden reckons it could be higher though; earlier in April, he called the difference in valuations between Europe and the US a "major issue" and argued Shell is "massively undervalued".
His comments followed current Shell boss Wael Sawan's warning that "if we work through the sprint (turnaround plan) and we are doing what we are doing, and we still don’t see that the gap is closing, we have to look at all options”.
Aside from that elephant in the room, investors are looking forward to hearing Shell’s forecast for oil prices in the year ahead after Brent crude fell below $90 a barrel earlier this month.
Shell, in a recent trading update, increased its production guidance but gave an extremely wide guidance window for its Renewables and Energy Solutions segment between a loss of $100 million and a gain of $500 million for the current quarter.
The final result will be announced on Thursday, 2 May.