Ally Financial Inc. $ALLY Stock Position Lifted by AQR Capital Management LLC

Key Points

• AQR Capital Management LLC significantly increased its stake in Ally Financial, boosting its holdings by 173.2% and acquiring an additional 873,380 shares in Q1, bringing its total ownership to approximately 1,377,717 shares.
• Ally Financial reported $0.99 earnings per share for the latest quarter, exceeding analyst expectations by $0.21, with a revenue increase of 3.0% year-over-year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.30 per share, reflecting a dividend yield of 2.9% with a payout ratio of approximately 77.92%.

AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE:ALLY - Free Report) by 173.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,377,717 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 873,380 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.45% of Ally Financial worth $49,984,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALLY. Algert Global LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ally Financial in the 4th quarter worth about $396,000. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in shares of Ally Financial by 49.7% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 8,910 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $321,000 after acquiring an additional 2,958 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in shares of Ally Financial by 192.7% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 53,364 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,922,000 after buying an additional 35,130 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Ally Financial by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,367 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $229,000 after acquiring an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG lifted its position in Ally Financial by 105.1% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,316,415 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $47,404,000 after buying an additional 674,464 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.76% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ALLY has been the topic of several research reports. BTIG Research raised Ally Financial from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $47.00 price target (up from $39.00) on shares of Ally Financial in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Ally Financial from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Ally Financial from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $37.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $59.00 price target (up from $55.00) on shares of Ally Financial in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $43.67.

Ally Financial Stock Performance

ALLY stock traded up $0.12 on Friday, reaching $42.22. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,082,273 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,352,482. Ally Financial Inc. has a 52 week low of $29.52 and a 52 week high of $42.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The company has a market capitalization of $13.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 1.14. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $39.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.62.

Ally Financial (NYSE:ALLY - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.21. Ally Financial had a return on equity of 9.48% and a net margin of 7.64%.The company had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.97 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Ally Financial Inc. will post 3.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ally Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 1st were paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. Ally Financial's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 77.92%.

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.