Foreign investors have offloaded more than 300 billion won (US$272 million) worth of Hyundai Motor stocks in the past month, bourse data showed Monday, reflecting concerns that the automaker's sales growth would be slower than expected.

According to the Korea Exchange, offshore investors sold a net 338 billion won worth of Hyundai Motor stocks for 15 consecutive trading days last month. Their stake in the country's top automaker dipped to a seven-month low of 43.61 percent Friday.

Hyundai Motor was changing hands at 166,500 won on the Seoul bourse as of 10:35 a.m., down 1.48 percent from the previous session's close.

Hyundai Motor stocks fell some 30 percent last year as it struggled with weak sales at home and abroad and investors were outraged by its property deal.

The company won a bid late September for a piece of land in the country's central Gangnam district for 10.6 trillion won, triple the assessed price.

To help soothe investor discontent, the automaker has said it would raise dividend payouts. Hyundai Motor and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors also said in November that they plan to spend 670 billion won for stock buyback by Feb. 11 this year.

But foreign investors' selling march did not stop.

Last month, the two automakers forecast their weakest sales growth in a decade due to output constraints and intensified competition in overseas markets.

The automakers forecast that their combined sales will rise 2.5 percent to 8.2 million vehicles in 2015, the slowest growth since 2006.

"The sales target falls short of market expectations ...Investors are increasingly concerned about a slowdown in their growth," said Koh Tae-bong, an analyst at HI Investment & Securities. (Yonhap)