Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Has $3.83 Million Position in General Motors (NYSE:GM)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System reduced its stake in shares of General Motors (NYSE:GM) (TSE:GMM.U) by 14.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 90,408 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock after selling 15,514 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in General Motors were worth $3,828,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GM. Norges Bank bought a new stake in General Motors in the fourth quarter worth $602,280,000. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in General Motors by 21.9% during the fourth quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 18,097,486 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock valued at $650,062,000 after acquiring an additional 3,247,050 shares during the period. Putnam Investments LLC boosted its stake in General Motors by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 20,237,820 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock valued at $726,942,000 after purchasing an additional 2,905,689 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado boosted its position in shares of General Motors by 1,213.0% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 2,203,771 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock valued at $79,159,000 after acquiring an additional 2,035,925 shares during the period. Finally, Caxton Associates LP raised its stake in General Motors by 1,514.2% during the 4th quarter. Caxton Associates LP now owns 1,755,334 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock valued at $63,052,000 after purchasing an additional 1,646,594 shares during the last quarter. 92.67% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mary T. Barra sold 626,316 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.46, for a total transaction of $27,219,693.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,198,648 shares in the company, valued at $52,093,242.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Mary T. Barra sold 626,316 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.46, for a total value of $27,219,693.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,198,648 shares in the company, valued at $52,093,242.08. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mary T. Barra sold 326,305 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.33, for a total transaction of $15,770,320.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 898,648 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,431,657.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,152,621 shares of company stock valued at $51,818,111 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Mizuho upped their price target on General Motors from $48.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of General Motors from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of General Motors in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $55.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of General Motors from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of General Motors from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.91.

General Motors Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GM traded up $0.36 during trading on Friday, reaching $47.07. The company had a trading volume of 3,429,943 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,922,949. General Motors has a 52 week low of $26.30 and a 52 week high of $49.35. The stock has a market cap of $53.70 billion, a PE ratio of 5.71, a PEG ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.16. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $45.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.68.

General Motors (NYSE:GM) (TSE:GMM.U) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The auto manufacturer reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.60. The business had revenue of $43.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.09 billion. General Motors had a net margin of 6.13% and a return on equity of 14.40%. General Motors’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.21 earnings per share. Analysts expect that General Motors will post 9.43 earnings per share for the current year.

General Motors declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, June 11th that allows the company to buyback $6.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the auto manufacturer to reacquire up to 10.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

General Motors Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 20th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th were paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 7th. General Motors’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.87%.

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.