Shell has won higher price targets from two brokers while its $5 billion share buyback continues to work through the market, even though the shares have fallen sharply over the past week. Ad-hoc News reported that Morgan Stanley lifted its price target on the energy major to £39.61, while TD Cowen analyst Jason Gabelman kept his buy rating and raised his target from $115 to $120.

The broker support comes against a weaker backdrop for the stock, which has shed 8.5 percent over the past seven days as crude prices retreated. Brent crude settled at $98.32 a barrel on Friday, well below the levels seen earlier in the week, after hopes of de-escalation in the conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran weighed on oil.

The buyback itself is moving steadily. Shell bought 1,890,632 of its own shares for cancellation on Tuesday and 1,876,276 on Wednesday, with further purchases disclosed on Thursday, all inside the $5.0 billion programme announced around a week earlier. The programme is split between a London contract capped at $3 billion and a Dutch contract with a $2 billion ceiling, and management expects to complete it by the time fourth-quarter 2026 results are published.

The spending rests on a strong third quarter. Figures published on 29 October showed adjusted earnings of $10.814 billion and operating cash flow of $21.043 billion. Shell also said it had 5,701,440,412 voting ordinary shares in issue as of 30 October.

Shell is also pressing ahead with longer-term fuel deals. Shell Trading Rotterdam has signed a long-term offtake agreement with Green Sky Manara covering sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuels from a planned facility at Port Nador in Morocco, while Shell Global LNG has agreed to supply METLEN with six cargoes a year.