Fifth Third Trims GM Stake 4.8% as Institutions Hold 92.67%

By Grace Kim

Fifth Third Bancorp cut its General Motors (NYSE:GM) stake by 4.8% in the third quarter, selling 10,596 shares and leaving it with 212,179 shares worth $16,338,000, according to its latest SEC filing reported by HoldingsChannel.com. The trim is one seller against a crowd of buyers.

Who else moved in Q3?

Four institutional investors added to GM positions in the same window:

• Bingham Private Wealth LLC: +2.3%, buying 155 shares to reach 6,872 shares worth $529,000.
• Maryland State Retirement & Pension System: +10.4%, adding 5,059 shares for 53,717 shares worth $4,136,000.
• Ritholtz Wealth Management: +5.2%, adding 4,740 shares to hold 95,665 shares worth $7,6 million—precisely $7,366,000.
• First Command Advisory Services Inc.: +210.1%, the sharpest percentage move, acquiring 3,582 shares to own 5,287 shares worth $407,000.
• Machina Capital S.A.S.: +51.3%, picking up 31,727 shares to hold 93,626 shares worth $7,209,000.

Institutions and hedge funds own 92.67% of GM's stock, so these filings map nearly the whole shareholder base.

What do the fundamentals say?

GM shares opened at $85.96 on Friday, against a 12-month range of $67.06 to $93.70. The stock trades at a price-to-earnings ratio (a share price measure against per-share profit) of 6.40 and a PEG ratio of 0.49, with a beta of 1.40.

The balance sheet shows a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.94 and debt-to-equity of 1.32. Market capitalization stands at $72.51 billion. The 50-day moving average is $83.54; the 200-day is $80.99.

Q3 earnings landed October 20: $3.70 EPS, one cent above consensus, on revenue of $50.02 billion versus $48.78 billion expected. Revenue rose 2.9% year over year, and EPS jumped from $2.80 a year earlier. Net margin was 2.12%; return on equity hit 19.36%. Analysts forecast $13.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

What's going back to shareholders?

Plenty. GM declared a quarterly dividend of $0.18, payable December 17 to holders of record December 4, with the same date as ex-dividend. That's $0.72 annualized, a 0.8% yield, at a payout ratio of 16.51%.

On October 20, the board also authorized a $20 billion share repurchase program — enough to retire up to 27.5% of the stock through open-market purchases. Buybacks of that scale usually signal management thinks the shares are undervalued; at a 6.40 P/E, that's the math they're pointing at.

How does Wall Street see it?

Analyst action in October leaned positive, with targets drifting down:

• Goldman Sachs: cut its target from $112.00 to $96.00, "buy" rating, October 21.
• TD Cowen: reiterated "buy" with a $132.00 target, October 21.
• JPMorgan: trimmed from $120.00 to $110.00, "overweight," October 12.
• Barclays: lowered from $110.00 to $105.00, "overweight," October 21.
• Deutsche Bank: set a $98.00 target, October 21.

MarketBeat tallies one Strong Buy, twenty-two Buy, four Hold and one Sell rating, for a consensus of "Moderate Buy" and a $101.44 average target.

What else is moving at GM?

EVP Rory Harvey sold 16,513 shares on November 4 at an average $89.64, totaling $1,480,225.32 — a 57.91% cut in his direct ownership, leaving 12,000 shares worth about $1,075,680. The sale ran under a Rule 10b5-1 pre-arranged trading plan (a schedule set in advance to avoid insider-timing claims). Insiders own just 0.44% of the stock.

Elsewhere, GM plans a $550 million investment in two Michigan solar projects that could power its three Michigan assembly plants, and it will move its listing from NYSE to Nasdaq after 115 years. One caution flag: September's average new-car monthly payment hit $776, the highest since December 2023, which could pressure affordability and demand.

The takeaway: one institutional seller doesn't make a trend — 92.67% institutional ownership and a $20 billion buyback say the big money is still leaning in.