On March 10, 2023 at 15:42:55 ET an unusually large $369.60K block of Put contracts in Ally Financial (ALLY) was sold, with a strike price of $25.00 / share, expiring in 42 days (on April 21, 2023). Fintel tracks all large options trades, and the premium spent on this trade was 1.33 sigmas above the mean, placing it in the 84.24 percentile of all recent large trades made in ALLY options.

This trade was first picked up on Fintel’s real time Unusual Option Trades tool, where unusual option trades are highlighted.

Analyst Price Forecast Suggests 32.80% Upside

As of March 10, 2023, the average one-year price target for Ally Financial is $36.36. The forecasts range from a low of $24.24 to a high of $53.55. The average price target represents an increase of 32.80% from its latest reported closing price of $27.38.

See our leaderboard of companies with the largest price target upside.

The projected annual revenue for Ally Financial is $8,576MM, an increase of 7.97%. The projected annual non-GAAP EPS is $4.50.

What is the Fund Sentiment?

There are 986 funds or institutions reporting positions in Ally Financial. This is a decrease of 27 owner(s) or 2.67% in the last quarter. Average portfolio weight of all funds dedicated to ALLY is 0.22%, a decrease of 16.30%. Total shares owned by institutions decreased in the last three months by 1.42% to 311,430K shares. The put/call ratio of ALLY is 2.38, indicating a bearish outlook.

What are Large Shareholders Doing?

Berkshire Hathaway holds 29,800K shares representing 9.91% ownership of the company. In it’s prior filing, the firm reported owning 30,000K shares, representing a decrease of 0.67%. The firm decreased its portfolio allocation in ALLY by 13.58% over the last quarter.

Harris Associates L P holds 25,998K shares representing 8.64% ownership of the company. In it’s prior filing, the firm reported owning 26,796K shares, representing a decrease of 3.07%. The firm decreased its portfolio allocation in ALLY by 19.79% over the last quarter.

OAKMX – Oakmark Fund Investor Class holds 13,359K shares representing 4.44% ownership of the company. No change in the last quarter.

VTSMX – Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares holds 8,139K shares representing 2.71% ownership of the company. In it’s prior filing, the firm reported owning 8,224K shares, representing a decrease of 1.04%. The firm decreased its portfolio allocation in ALLY by 19.70% over the last quarter.

Arrowstreet Capital, Limited Partnership holds 7,063K shares representing 2.35% ownership of the company. In it’s prior filing, the firm reported owning 5,886K shares, representing an increase of 16.66%. The firm increased its portfolio allocation in ALLY by 0.02% over the last quarter.

Ally Financial Declares $0.30 Dividend

On January 18, 2023 the company declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.30 per share ($1.20 annualized). Shareholders of record as of February 1, 2023 received the payment on February 15, 2023. Previously, the company paid $0.30 per share.

At the current share price of $27.38 / share, the stock’s dividend yield is 4.38%. Looking back five years and taking a sample every week, the average dividend yield has been 2.66%, the lowest has been 1.38%, and the highest has been 6.27%. The standard deviation of yields is 0.93 (n=237).

The current dividend yield is 1.86 standard deviations above the historical average.

Additionally, the company’s dividend payout ratio is 0.21. The payout ratio tells us how much of a company’s income is paid out in dividends. A payout ratio of one (1.0) means 100% of the company’s income is paid in a dividend. A payout ratio greater than one means the company is dipping into savings in order to maintain its dividend – not a healthy situation. Companies with few growth prospects are expected to pay out most of their income in dividends, which typically means a payout ratio between 0.5 and 1.0. Companies with good growth prospects are expected to retain some earnings in order to invest in those growth prospects, which translates to a payout ratio of zero to 0.5.

The company’s 3-Year dividend growth rate is 0.58%, demonstrating that it has increased its dividend over time.

Ally Financial Background Information
(This description is provided by the company.)

Ally Financial Inc. is a leading digital financial-services company with $182.2 billionin assets as of December 31, 2020. As a customer-centric company with passionate customer service and innovative financial solutions, it’s relentlessly focused on ‘Doing it Right’ and being a trusted financial-services provider to its consumer, commercial, and corporate customers. It’s one of the largest full-service automotive-finance operations in the country and offers a wide range of financial services and insurance products to automotive dealerships and consumers. Its award-winning online bank (Ally Bank, Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender) offers mortgage lending, personal lending, and a variety of deposit and other banking products, including savings, money-market, and checking accounts, certificates of deposit (CDs), and individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Additionally, it offer securities-brokerage and investment-advisory services through Ally Invest. Its robust corporate finance business offers capital for equity sponsors and middle-market companies.

This article originally appeared on Fintel

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