Ally Financial tops Street fourth quarter forecasts

DETROIT (AP) - Ally Financial Inc. (ALLY) on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter profit of $263 million. On a per-share basis, the Detroit-based company said it had a loss of $1.97 because of the redemption of $1.3 billion of preferred securities during the quarter. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs and to account for discontinued operations, were 52 cents per share. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 51 cents per share. The auto finance company and bank posted revenue of $1.34 billion in the period, also exceeding Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.33 billion. For the year, the company reported profit of $1.29 billion. On a per-share basis, the loss was $2.66 per share. Revenue was reported as $4.86 billion. Shares of Ally Financial Inc. fell 11 cents to $15.94 in morning trading Tuesday. -------- Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on ALLY at http://www.zacks.com/ap/ALLY. Published: Thu, Feb 04, 2016