General Motors Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:GM)

General Motors (NYSE:GM) (TSE:GMM.U) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 66,908 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 32% compared to the typical volume of 50,611 put options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on GM. Hsbc Global Res downgraded General Motors from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $73.00 price objective on General Motors in a report on Saturday, March 1st. HSBC cut shares of General Motors from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $58.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of General Motors from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $56.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of General Motors from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, General Motors has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.06.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Motors news, Director Alfred F. Kelly, Jr. acquired 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 13,714 shares in the company, valued at $694,751.24. This trade represents a 700.12 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GM. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of General Motors during the fourth quarter worth $592,321,000. Amundi lifted its stake in General Motors by 75.5% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 4,914,256 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock worth $250,627,000 after purchasing an additional 2,113,973 shares in the last quarter. ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC boosted its holdings in shares of General Motors by 39.8% during the 4th quarter. ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC now owns 7,397,404 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock valued at $394,060,000 after purchasing an additional 2,104,528 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of General Motors in the fourth quarter worth about $108,366,000. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its position in shares of General Motors by 972.6% in the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 2,103,036 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock worth $94,300,000 after buying an additional 1,906,964 shares in the last quarter. 92.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

General Motors Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:GM traded down $0.81 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $51.78. 6,644,121 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 12,939,554. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $49.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $50.55. The firm has a market cap of $51.52 billion, a PE ratio of 8.41, a PEG ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 1.42. General Motors has a 52 week low of $38.96 and a 52 week high of $61.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

General Motors (NYSE:GM) (TSE:GMM.U) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The auto manufacturer reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. On average, equities analysts expect that General Motors will post 11.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Motors declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to repurchase $6.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the auto manufacturer to repurchase up to 12.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

General Motors Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.93%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. General Motors’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.