Wall Street auto analyst asks all of his clients: 'Is anybody out there?'

"We cannot remember the last time we have received such little interest in GM from investors since its IPO," Morgan Stanley's Adam Jonas said.

Jonas covers the auto industry for Morgan Stanley.

"Is anybody out there?" he asked in a research note to clients. "Phones have gone seriously cold on GM."

As an analyst who makes buy and sell calls on stocks, Jonas makes himself available to Morgan Stanley's clients. His email address and phone number are printed on the upper right corner of the front page of each of his notes.

The same thing happened 3 years ago

This isn't the first time Jonas published that he hasn't been getting questions about stocks he covered. In May 2012, he wrote a note titled, "The Sound of Silence."

"In my 15 years covering the auto sector at Morgan Stanley I've seen both good times and bad, but we've never seen the phones go this quiet," he wrote back then. Jonas had actually called clients to see if they wanted to talk, but they weren't having any of it.

"A near-term positive"

Fast-forward back to today: In an interesting twist, Jonas said that the lack of phone calls may actually be a bullish sign. This might be confusing to clients as he has a "Cautious" view of the industry and an "Underweight" rating on GM stock.

His price target is $28 per share. It closed Tuesday at $37.50.

"While we remain concerned over the cyclical and secular challenges facing GM, we can't help but see lack of interest as a near-term positive," he wrote.

GM recently announced an eye-popping $5 billion stock buyback program, the type of move that a company makes when it is running out of ways to invest for growth.

"In our experience, such lulls in sentiment can frequently suggest near-term stock outperformance," Jonas added. "Trying to pinpoint sentiment is far from a scientific exercise, but we see scope for incremental buyers to be attracted to GM's valuation, willingness to return cash and near- term earnings beats, regardless how temporary."

To close the note, Jonas reiterated that he rates GM "Underweight," which means if it has to be in your portfolio, it should be a very small part of it.