Ally Financial (NYSE:ALLY) Shares Gap Up to $36.27

Shares of Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE:ALLY) gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $36.27, but opened at $37.49. Ally Financial shares last traded at $38.97, with a volume of 1,024,861 shares changing hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Ally Financial from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $37.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Ally Financial from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Barclays lifted their target price on Ally Financial from $32.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Ally Financial in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised Ally Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $37.59.

Ally Financial Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.89, a PEG ratio of 0.53 and a beta of 1.40. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $37.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.78.

Ally Financial (NYSE:ALLY) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 19th. The financial services provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.01. Ally Financial had a return on equity of 9.41% and a net margin of 12.42%. The firm had revenue of $2.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.99 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.08 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ally Financial Inc. will post 2.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Ally Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be issued a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. Ally Financial’s payout ratio is 40.13%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ally Financial

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Ally Financial by 1.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. lifted its stake in Ally Financial by 426.5% in the 1st quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. now owns 9,493,106 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $241,979,000 after purchasing an additional 7,689,915 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Ally Financial by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,749,404 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $380,424,000 after purchasing an additional 281,795 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Ally Financial by 18.1% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 8,343,564 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $212,677,000 after purchasing an additional 1,281,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its position in shares of Ally Financial by 195.1% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 6,058,768 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $148,137,000 after buying an additional 4,005,417 shares during the period. 88.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.