General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) Raised to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Thursday morning.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on GD. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $325.00 to $320.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Alembic Global Advisors lowered shares of General Dynamics from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and set a $296.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $291.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $253.00 to $284.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $293.43.

General Dynamics Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of GD stock opened at $284.41 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $280.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $261.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The stock has a market cap of $78.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.20, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.68. General Dynamics has a twelve month low of $202.35 and a twelve month high of $296.50.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The aerospace company reported $2.88 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.89 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $10.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.26 billion. General Dynamics had a net margin of 7.85% and a return on equity of 16.48%. The company’s revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.64 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that General Dynamics will post 14.57 earnings per share for the current year.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 12th will be given a dividend of $1.42 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 11th. This is an increase from General Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.32. This represents a $5.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.00%. General Dynamics’s payout ratio is currently 46.33%.

Insider Transactions at General Dynamics

In other news, CEO Phebe N. Novakovic sold 32,355 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.31, for a total transaction of $8,551,750.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 773,977 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $204,569,860.87. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.52% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On General Dynamics

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GD. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC increased its stake in General Dynamics by 411.5% in the third quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 133 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its stake in General Dynamics by 1,406.1% in the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 2,696 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $596,000 after purchasing an additional 2,517 shares during the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA increased its stake in General Dynamics by 1.1% in the third quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 4,210 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $930,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional increased its stake in General Dynamics by 123.9% in the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 23,531 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $5,200,000 after purchasing an additional 13,022 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WASHINGTON TRUST Co increased its stake in General Dynamics by 3.9% in the third quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 2,659 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $588,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 86.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About General Dynamics

General Dynamics Corporation operates as an aerospace and defense company worldwide. It operates through four segments: Aerospace, Marine Systems, Combat Systems, and Technologies. The Aerospace segment produces and sells business jets; and offers aircraft maintenance and repair, management, aircraft-on-ground support and completion, charter, staffing, and fixed-base operator services.