Principal Securities Inc. Raises Position in General Motors (NYSE:GM)

Principal Securities Inc. increased its stake in shares of General Motors (NYSE:GM) (TSE:GMM.U) by 15.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 32,693 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,334 shares during the quarter. Principal Securities Inc.’s holdings in General Motors were worth $1,742,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GM. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in General Motors by 204.9% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 7,654 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock valued at $356,000 after buying an additional 5,144 shares in the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN purchased a new position in shares of General Motors in the 3rd quarter valued at about $269,000. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. raised its position in shares of General Motors by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. now owns 2,827 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock worth $127,000 after acquiring an additional 377 shares in the last quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in General Motors by 2.3% during the third quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,212 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock worth $592,000 after purchasing an additional 292 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in General Motors by 29.4% in the third quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 55,969 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock valued at $2,510,000 after purchasing an additional 12,729 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.67% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Alfred F. Kelly, Jr. purchased 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $50.66 per share, for a total transaction of $607,920.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 13,714 shares in the company, valued at approximately $694,751.24. The trade was a 700.12 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Rory Harvey sold 8,919 shares of the firm’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 of the company’s stock, valued at $510,865.13. The trade was a 51.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on GM. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of General Motors from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of General Motors from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on 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 General Motors from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $56.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised General Motors from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, General Motors presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $59.71.

General Motors Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:GM opened at $48.14 on Wednesday. General Motors has a fifty-two week low of $38.13 and a fifty-two week high of $61.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $50.09. The company has a market cap of $47.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.83, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.40.

General Motors (NYSE:GM) (TSE:GMM.U) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The auto manufacturer reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.17. General Motors had a net margin of 3.21% and a return on equity of 15.29%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that General Motors will post 11.28 earnings per share for the current year.

General Motors Dividend Announcement

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

General Motors Company Profile

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.