General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD) Shares Sold by Investment Partners LTD.

Investment Partners LTD. decreased its stake in shares of General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD) by 5.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,920 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. Investment Partners LTD.’s holdings in General Dynamics were worth $498,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GD. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,423,961 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $4,955,023,000 after purchasing an additional 133,061 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 12.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,360,526 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $3,615,185,000 after purchasing an additional 1,755,276 shares during the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 4,017,057 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $887,649,000 after purchasing an additional 17,061 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 13.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,293,269 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $506,744,000 after purchasing an additional 275,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,258,362 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $499,030,000 after purchasing an additional 97,789 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on GD shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $253.00 to $284.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $280.00 to $298.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Alembic Global Advisors downgraded shares of General Dynamics from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $296.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 29th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $286.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $285.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.63.

General Dynamics Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of GD stock traded down $0.49 during trading on Friday, hitting $284.41. 1,244,205 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,231,567. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $78.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.68. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $280.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $261.71. General Dynamics Co. has a twelve month low of $202.35 and a twelve month high of $296.50.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The aerospace company reported $2.88 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.89 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $10.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.26 billion. General Dynamics had a return on equity of 16.48% and a net margin of 7.85%. The business’s revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.64 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that General Dynamics Co. will post 14.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Dynamics news, CEO Phebe N. Novakovic sold 32,355 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.31, for a total value of $8,551,750.05. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 773,977 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $204,569,860.87. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.52% of the company’s stock.

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.