Strs Ohio Lowers Holdings in Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE:ALLY)

Strs Ohio cut its holdings in Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE:ALLY) by 27.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 36,876 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 14,100 shares during the period. Strs Ohio’s holdings in Ally Financial were worth $1,287,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northern Trust Corp lifted 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 worth $83,309,000 after purchasing an additional 795,754 shares in the last quarter. Private Management Group Inc. increased its stake in Ally Financial by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Private Management Group Inc. now owns 819,136 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,855,000 after acquiring an additional 70,615 shares during the last quarter. ING Groep NV bought a new stake in Ally Financial in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,336,000. Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Ally Financial in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $724,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in Ally Financial by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 23,442 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $816,000 after acquiring an additional 1,755 shares during the last quarter. 88.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ALLY has been the topic of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Ally Financial from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Ally Financial in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised Ally Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $37.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Bank of America raised Ally Financial from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $42.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Compass Point boosted their target price on Ally Financial from $28.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ally Financial presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.47.

Ally Financial Stock Performance

Shares of Ally Financial stock opened at $39.76 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $37.76 and its two-hundred day moving average is $33.13. The company has a market capitalization of $12.09 billion, a PE ratio of 16.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. Ally Financial Inc. has a 52 week low of $22.54 and a 52 week high of $41.56.

Ally Financial (NYSE:ALLY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.12. Ally Financial had a return on equity of 8.35% and a net margin of 10.59%. The company had revenue of $1.99 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.82 EPS. Ally Financial’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Ally Financial Inc. will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Ally Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be issued a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.02%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. Ally Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 48.98%.

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.