General Motors (NYSE:GM) Hits New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

General Motors (NYSE:GM) (TSE:GMM.U)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $55.30 and last traded at $54.89, with a volume of 1712844 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $53.70.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on GM shares. Morgan Stanley cut shares of General Motors from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $47.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of General Motors from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of General Motors from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of General Motors from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Nomura Securities raised shares of General Motors to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, General Motors presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.92.

General Motors Price Performance

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $48.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $46.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $60.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.03.

General Motors (NYSE:GM) (TSE:GMM.U) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The auto manufacturer reported $2.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.49 by $0.47. The company had revenue of $48.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.67 billion. General Motors had a net margin of 6.06% and a return on equity of 16.30%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.28 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that General Motors will post 10.34 EPS for the current year.

General Motors Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.87%. General Motors’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.12%.

Insider Activity at General Motors

In other General Motors news, EVP Rory Harvey sold 12,795 shares of General Motors stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.02, for a total transaction of $627,210.90. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 8,513 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $417,307.26. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other General Motors news, CEO Mary T. Barra sold 506,824 shares of General Motors stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.33, for a total transaction of $27,028,923.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 694,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,040,244.84. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Rory Harvey sold 12,795 shares of General Motors stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.02, for a total transaction of $627,210.90. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,513 shares in the company, valued at $417,307.26. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 531,228 shares of company stock worth $28,267,714. 0.72% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On General Motors

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of General Motors by 2.3% in the third quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 18,581 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock worth $833,000 after buying an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc lifted its holdings in shares of General Motors by 25.7% in the third quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 24,891 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock worth $1,116,000 after buying an additional 5,089 shares in the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of General Motors by 1,167.9% in the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 12,920 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock worth $579,000 after buying an additional 11,901 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of General Motors by 15.3% in the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 29,402 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock worth $1,318,000 after buying an additional 3,899 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of General Motors by 81.0% in the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 37,516 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock worth $1,682,000 after buying an additional 16,788 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.67% of the company’s stock.

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.