Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE:ALLY) Plans $0.30 Quarterly Dividend

Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE:ALLY) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 16th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.30 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th.

Ally Financial has raised its dividend payment by an average of 16.5% per year over the last three years. Ally Financial has a payout ratio of 22.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Ally Financial to earn $5.26 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 22.8%.

Ally Financial Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE ALLY opened at $36.27 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $37.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.78. Ally Financial has a fifty-two week low of $22.54 and a fifty-two week high of $41.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.13, a P/E/G ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90.

Ally Financial (NYSE:ALLY) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 19th. The financial services provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.01. Ally Financial had a net margin of 12.42% and a return on equity of 9.41%. The firm had revenue of $2.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.99 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.08 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Ally Financial will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Ally Financial in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $47.00 target price for the company. Raymond James downgraded shares of Ally Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 5th. Compass Point increased their price objective on shares of Ally Financial from $28.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ally Financial from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $37.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Ally Financial from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $37.59.

Institutional Trading of Ally Financial

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ALLY. EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Ally Financial by 8.2% during the first quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,656 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $202,000 after acquiring an additional 354 shares during the period. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV bought a new position in Ally Financial during the first quarter worth about $201,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in Ally Financial by 5.4% during the first quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 7,899 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $201,000 after acquiring an additional 402 shares during the period. Money Concepts Capital Corp increased its position in Ally Financial by 282.2% during the fourth quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp now owns 5,186 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $127,000 after acquiring an additional 3,829 shares during the period. Finally, Ossiam increased its position in Ally Financial by 86.4% during the first quarter. Ossiam now owns 4,087 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $104,000 after acquiring an additional 1,894 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.76% of the company’s stock.

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.