Bailard Inc. Raises Stock Position in Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE:ALLY)

Bailard Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE:ALLY) by 40.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 62,127 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,985 shares during the period. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Ally Financial were worth $2,169,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new stake in Ally Financial during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Ally Financial by 337.8% in the 3rd quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 1,563 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 1,206 shares during the last quarter. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new position in shares of Ally Financial in the fourth quarter worth $50,000. Denali Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Ally Financial by 68.6% in the third quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 1,897 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 772 shares during the period. Finally, Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ally Financial in the fourth quarter worth $67,000. 88.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on ALLY. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Ally Financial in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ally Financial from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $37.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Ally Financial from $32.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Ally Financial from $29.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Raymond James downgraded shares of Ally Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.47.

Ally Financial Price Performance

ALLY traded up $0.23 during trading on Friday, reaching $39.37. 482,108 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,954,211. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.92. Ally Financial Inc. has a 12-month low of $22.54 and a 12-month high of $41.56. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $33.32. The company has a market cap of $11.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.98, a PEG ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 1.40.

Ally Financial (NYSE:ALLY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $1.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.96 billion. Ally Financial had a net margin of 10.59% and a return on equity of 8.35%. The company’s revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.82 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ally Financial Inc. will post 2.95 EPS for the current year.

Ally Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.05%. Ally Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.98%.

Ally Financial Profile

Ally Financial Inc, a digital financial-services company, provides various digital financial products and services in the United States, Canada, and Bermuda. The company operates through Automotive Finance Operations, Insurance Operations, Mortgage Finance Operations, and Corporate Finance Operations segments.