Shell PLC’s (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL)<\/a>\u00a0latest ‘stronger’ trading update has earned\u00a0the oiler an upgrade among the analysts over at UBS.<\/p>\nThe Swiss bank’s analysts have lifted their\u00a0first-quarter profit forecast\u00a0by 18% after Shell’s update pointed to improved trading, lower upstream taxes and firmer downstream volumes, though the bank stopped short of turning more bullish on the shares – it is sticking to a ‘neutral’ rating and 3,850p price target, which implies roughly 8% upside.<\/p>\n
UBS described the performance as solid despite disruption. Specifically, the upgraded forecast comes chiefly due to better-than-expected liquids trading, alongside a lower tax charge in upstream and healthier volumes in downstream operations.<\/p>\n
On cash flow, meanwhile,\u00a0UBS said the \u201cmain negative surprise\u201d was a larger-than-expected working-capital build of US$10 billion to US$15 billion, versus its earlier US$5 billion assumption, as well as a US$3 billion to US$4 billion non-cash increase in shipping-related lease liabilities. That leaves the bank expecting Shell\u2019s net debt, including leases, to rise by US$11.2 billion quarter on quarter, even though it sees the effect as temporary.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, UBS now forecasts cash flow from operations excluding working capital of US$16.3 billion, around 30% above its previous estimate and roughly 50% ahead of consensus, helped by derivative inflows. And, even with the debt increase, the bank said it still expects Shell to keep buybacks flat at US$3.5 billion when it reports first-quarter results on 7 May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shell’s ‘stronger’ trading performance finds favour with broker Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock Shell PLC’s (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL)\u00a0latest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20685],"tags":[1150,4496,10807],"class_list":["post-49180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-shell","tag-shell","tag-shell-plc","tag-trading"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116641659830205915","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Shell's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0c1c2c0e7eee6aab0b66b295a46a84a1.jpeg\")
Shell’s ‘stronger’ trading performance finds favour with broker Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock <\/p>\n