General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have issued a hold recommendation, eleven have given a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $387.40.

A number of research firms have weighed in on GD. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $385.00 to $371.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $385.00 target price on shares of General Dynamics in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $327.00 to $313.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $385.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $384.00 to $375.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 30th.

General Dynamics Trading Up 0.0%

GD stock opened at $337.66 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. General Dynamics has a 12-month low of $268.10 and a 12-month high of $369.70. The stock has a market cap of $91.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.25, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.34. The business’s 50-day moving average is $340.31 and its 200 day moving average is $346.32.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The aerospace company reported $4.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.43. General Dynamics had a return on equity of 17.41% and a net margin of 8.07%.The company had revenue of $13.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.66 EPS. General Dynamics’s revenue was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that General Dynamics will post 16.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Marguerite Amy Gilliland sold 3,819 shares of General Dynamics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.50, for a total transaction of $1,350,016.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 44,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,825,134.50. The trade was a 7.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Phebe N. Novakovic sold 32,918 shares of General Dynamics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.09, for a total transaction of $11,655,934.62. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 766,457 shares in the company, valued at approximately $271,394,759.13. The trade was a 4.12% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 119,600 shares of company stock valued at $41,650,580 in the last ninety days. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of General Dynamics

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GD. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of General Dynamics by 118.3% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,663,847 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $567,372,000 after buying an additional 901,679 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of General Dynamics by 35.0% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,332,917 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $1,136,525,000 after buying an additional 863,392 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of General Dynamics by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,238,561 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $8,265,349,000 after buying an additional 677,665 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of General Dynamics by 831.1% during the 3rd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 737,259 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $251,405,000 after buying an additional 658,081 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in shares of General Dynamics by 6,680.8% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 591,488 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $199,130,000 after buying an additional 582,765 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.14% of the company’s stock.

General Dynamics Company Profile

General Dynamics is a major American aerospace and defense contractor that designs, manufactures and supports a broad range of products and services for government and commercial customers worldwide. Headquartered in the United States (Reston, Virginia), the company supplies platforms and systems used by armed forces, civil authorities and private operators across multiple domains including air, land, sea and cyber.

Its principal activities span several operating businesses: a business aviation unit that develops and supports Gulfstream business jets; land systems that produce armored combat vehicles and related logistics and sustainment services; marine systems that design and construct submarines and surface ships for navies; and mission systems and information technology operations that provide command-and-control, communications, cybersecurity and systems-integration services.