General Motors (NYSE:GM) Lowered to “Hold” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of General Motors (NYSE:GM) (TSE:GMM.U) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Wednesday morning.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of General Motors from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of General Motors from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $56.00 to $60.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays upped their target price on General Motors from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on General Motors from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of General Motors from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, General Motors currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $61.28.

General Motors Stock Performance

General Motors stock opened at $47.79 on Wednesday. General Motors has a 1-year low of $37.60 and a 1-year high of $61.24. The firm has a market cap of $47.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.77, a P/E/G ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $52.27 and a 200-day moving average of $49.94.

General Motors (NYSE:GM) (TSE:GMM.U) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The auto manufacturer reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.17. General Motors had a return on equity of 15.29% and a net margin of 3.21%. Sell-side analysts expect that General Motors will post 11.41 EPS for the current year.

General Motors Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 20th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.00%. General Motors’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.80%.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Motors

In other General Motors news, EVP Rory Harvey sold 8,919 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total value of $535,229.19. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,513 shares in the company, valued at $510,865.13. This represents a 51.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Craig B. Glidden sold 383,142 shares of General Motors stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.63, for a total transaction of $21,697,331.46. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 122,465 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,935,192.95. This trade represents a 75.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of General Motors

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of General Motors by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 23,620,533 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,055,395,000 after purchasing an additional 106,878 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in General Motors by 6.1% during the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 17,278,448 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock valued at $774,766,000 after buying an additional 989,750 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in General Motors by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 11,113,063 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock valued at $498,310,000 after buying an additional 421,989 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in General Motors by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 5,798,131 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock worth $259,988,000 after acquiring an additional 358,507 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd raised its holdings in shares of General Motors by 35.8% during the 4th quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 4,399,549 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock worth $234,364,000 after acquiring an additional 1,159,958 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.67% of the company’s stock.

About General Motors

General Motors Company designs, builds, and sells trucks, crossovers, cars, and automobile parts; and provide software-enabled services and subscriptions worldwide. The company operates through GM North America, GM International, Cruise, and GM Financial segments. It markets its vehicles primarily under the Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Baojun, and Wuling brand names.