Raymond James Financial Inc. Purchases New Stake in Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE:ALLY)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE:ALLY - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 64,889 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,337,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ALLY. APG Asset Management N.V. bought a new position in shares of Ally Financial during the fourth quarter worth $5,282,000. Straightline Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ally Financial in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $546,000. Capula Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Ally Financial during the 4th quarter worth about $330,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in Ally Financial by 70.0% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 127,300 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $4,584,000 after purchasing an additional 52,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia boosted its holdings in shares of Ally Financial by 63.9% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 140,342 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $5,054,000 after buying an additional 54,709 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.76% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ally Financial news, CFO Russell E. Hutchinson acquired 8,200 shares of Ally Financial stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 22nd. The stock was bought at an average price of $30.81 per share, for a total transaction of $252,642.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 236,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,284,131.01. This trade represents a 3.59 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephanie N. Richard sold 8,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.14, for a total value of $257,120.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 90,387 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,905,038.18. The trade was a 8.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.67% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ally Financial Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ALLY traded up $0.92 during trading on Friday, hitting $33.21. 2,263,449 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,537,563. Ally Financial Inc. has a 1 year low of $29.52 and a 1 year high of $45.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The company has a market cap of $10.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.77, a PEG ratio of 0.32 and a beta of 1.12. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $34.03 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.99.

Ally Financial (NYSE:ALLY - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The financial services provider reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.15. Ally Financial had a net margin of 11.29% and a return on equity of 9.31%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ally Financial Inc. will post 3.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ally Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.61%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. Ally Financial's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 88.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ALLY. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Ally Financial from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Ally Financial from $45.00 to $39.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. For consumer lenders, the Trump Administration’s hardline approach to tariffs is “difficult to ignore” and there’s clearly more downside to the group if tariffs remain near current levels. If tariffs remain in place, risks to growth would skew meaningfully to the downside and risks to inflation to the upside, adds the analyst, who is downgrading the firm’s Consumer Finance industry view to Cautious from Attractive. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ally Financial from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Ally Financial from $45.00 to $41.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Ally Financial from $43.00 to $36.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ally Financial currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $41.69.

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.