General Motors (NYSE:GM) Shares Bought by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in General Motors (NYSE:GM) (TSE:GMM.U) by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,268,096 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock after buying an additional 13,206 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.12% of General Motors worth $56,861,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. &PARTNERS boosted its holdings in shares of General Motors by 80.6% during the second quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 9,485 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock valued at $441,000 after acquiring an additional 4,233 shares during the period. Atomi Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in General Motors by 58.9% during the 2nd quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 8,548 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock valued at $397,000 after purchasing an additional 3,169 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its position in General Motors by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 104,384 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock worth $4,850,000 after purchasing an additional 4,343 shares during the last quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd increased its stake in shares of General Motors by 7.8% in the second quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 3,403,708 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock valued at $158,136,000 after purchasing an additional 246,867 shares during the period. Finally, Harbour Investments Inc. raised its holdings in shares of General Motors by 6.5% during the second quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 12,355 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock valued at $574,000 after buying an additional 759 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.67% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Motors

In related news, CEO Mary T. Barra sold 506,824 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.33, for a total value of $27,028,923.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 694,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,040,244.84. The trade was a 42.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Rory Harvey sold 8,919 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was 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 owns 8,513 shares in the company, valued at $510,865.13. This represents a 51.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,030,475 shares of company stock valued at $56,509,286 in the last 90 days. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $53.00 price objective on shares of General Motors in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on General Motors from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of General Motors in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of General Motors from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of General Motors from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, General Motors has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.70.

General Motors Stock Performance

General Motors stock opened at $51.81 on Monday. General Motors has a fifty-two week low of $34.32 and a fifty-two week high of $61.24. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $53.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $48.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The company has a market cap of $56.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 1.42.

General Motors (NYSE:GM) (TSE:GMM.U) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The auto manufacturer reported $2.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.49 by $0.47. The firm had revenue of $48.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $44.67 billion. General Motors had a net margin of 6.06% and a return on equity of 16.30%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.28 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that General Motors will post 10.35 EPS for the current year.

General Motors Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.93%. General Motors’s payout ratio is presently 5.12%.

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.