Ally Financial Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:ALLY)

Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE:ALLY - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors acquired 8,589 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 48% compared to the average volume of 5,815 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ally Financial by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,009,495 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $747,293,000 after purchasing an additional 290,842 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Ally Financial by 47.5% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,620,655 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $96,599,000 after acquiring an additional 1,165,220 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Ally Financial by 47.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,316,501 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $88,484,000 after acquiring an additional 1,061,651 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Ally Financial by 34.2% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,122,515 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $83,309,000 after acquiring an additional 795,754 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Donald Smith & CO. Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ally Financial by 22.0% during the fourth quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 2,752,830 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $96,129,000 after purchasing an additional 495,584 shares during the last quarter. 88.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ally Financial Price Performance

NYSE ALLY traded down $0.14 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $39.16. The stock had a trading volume of 2,702,493 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,959,875. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $33.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The company has a market cap of $11.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.98, a P/E/G ratio of 0.57 and a beta of 1.40. Ally Financial has a 52-week low of $22.54 and a 52-week high of $41.56.

Ally Financial (NYSE:ALLY - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $1.99 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. Ally Financial had a return on equity of 8.35% and a net margin of 10.59%. The business's revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.82 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Ally Financial will post 2.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ally Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.06%. Ally Financial's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.98%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on ALLY. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ally Financial from a "neutral" rating to an "underweight" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $37.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised Ally Financial from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $37.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on Ally Financial in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $47.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com raised shares of Ally Financial from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Ally Financial from $32.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $38.47.

About Ally Financial

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.