EP Wealth Advisors LLC Grows Stake in Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE:ALLY)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE:ALLY) by 4.9% 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 6,367 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 297 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ally Financial were worth $229,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Ally Financial by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,252,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,017,360,000 after acquiring an additional 111,231 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Ally Financial by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,895,467 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $175,990,000 after acquiring an additional 184,278 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Ally Financial by 28.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,941,459 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $141,932,000 after acquiring an additional 863,052 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in Ally Financial by 41.4% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,458,352 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $124,535,000 after acquiring an additional 1,011,985 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Phoenix Financial Ltd. grew its position in Ally Financial by 86.4% in the fourth quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd. now owns 3,390,066 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $122,077,000 after acquiring an additional 1,571,027 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on ALLY. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Ally Financial from $34.00 to $32.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Ally Financial from $43.00 to $36.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Compass Point upgraded Ally Financial from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $37.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Ally Financial in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Ally Financial from $45.00 to $39.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ally Financial has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.69.

Ally Financial Stock Performance

Ally Financial stock opened at $36.68 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.27 billion, a PE ratio of 14.11, a P/E/G ratio of 0.32 and a beta of 1.14. Ally Financial Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $29.52 and a fifty-two week high of $45.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 0.93. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $33.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $35.96.

Ally Financial (NYSE:ALLY) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.04 billion. Ally Financial had a net margin of 11.29% and a return on equity of 9.31%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ally Financial Inc. will post 3.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Ally Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. Ally Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 88.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Stephanie N. Richard sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.14, for a total transaction of $257,120.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 90,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,905,038.18. This represents a 8.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Russell E. Hutchinson purchased 8,200 shares of Ally Financial stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 22nd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $30.81 per share, for a total transaction of $252,642.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 236,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,284,131.01. This represents a 3.59% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.56% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.