Van ECK Associates Corp Grows Position in General Motors (NYSE:GM)

Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of General Motors (NYSE:GM - Free Report) TSE: GMM.U by 16.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 41,091 shares of the auto manufacturer's stock after buying an additional 5,707 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp's holdings in General Motors were worth $2,189,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in General Motors by 0.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 23,620,533 shares of the auto manufacturer's stock worth $1,055,395,000 after purchasing an additional 106,878 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in General Motors by 6.1% during the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 17,278,448 shares of the auto manufacturer's stock worth $774,766,000 after purchasing an additional 989,750 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in General Motors by 3.9% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 11,113,063 shares of the auto manufacturer's stock valued at $498,310,000 after buying an additional 421,989 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its stake in General Motors by 6.6% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 5,798,131 shares of the auto manufacturer's stock valued at $259,988,000 after buying an additional 358,507 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd lifted its stake in General Motors by 38.7% in the fourth quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 4,089,633 shares of the auto manufacturer's stock valued at $217,855,000 after buying an additional 1,140,569 shares during the last quarter. 92.67% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Rory Harvey sold 8,919 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,513 shares in the company, valued at $510,865.13. This represents a 51.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Alfred F. Kelly, Jr. acquired 12,000 shares of General Motors stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was bought at an average price of $50.66 per share, for a total transaction of $607,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,714 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $694,751.24. This represents a 700.12 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 0.72% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GM. UBS Group boosted their price objective on General Motors from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Hsbc Global Res cut General Motors from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. StockNews.com cut General Motors from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on General Motors from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised General Motors from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $56.00 to $60.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $59.71.

General Motors Price Performance

General Motors stock traded down $1.59 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $46.31. The stock had a trading volume of 6,773,091 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,552,047. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.53, a PEG ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 1.40. General Motors has a 1-year low of $38.94 and a 1-year high of $61.24. The stock's fifty day moving average is $50.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $50.11.

General Motors (NYSE:GM - Get Free Report) TSE: GMM.U last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The auto manufacturer reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.17. General Motors had a return on equity of 15.29% and a net margin of 3.21%. As a group, analysts predict that General Motors will post 11.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Motors Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.04%. General Motors's dividend payout ratio is currently 7.80%.

General Motors 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.