How Royal Dutch Shell Has Changed in the Last Year

Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS-B) made an aggressive acquisition in the middle of an energy downturn. That left investors worried that debt was too high at a company that had a history of poor execution. Oil prices have since recovered from their lows, recently stabilizing above the $50 a barrel range. This has helped Shell's top- and bottom-lines, but obscures some of the more important changes taking place at the integrated energy giant. Here's two key facts you need to know about the last year.

Shell's long-term debt ballooned by more than 50% in 2016. Driving this massive uptick in debt was the company's acquisition of BG Group for roughly $50 billion. It was an aggressive move for the company, since energy prices were still relatively weak at that point. While some of the company's peers made opportunistic acquisitions, like ExxonMobil's (NYSE: XOM) $2.5 billion purchase of InterOil, none were on the scale of the BG deal.

Image source: Getty Images

Source: Fool.com