General Dynamics Corporation $GD Shares Acquired by Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) by 18.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 387,405 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after buying an additional 59,967 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership’s holdings in General Dynamics were worth $130,424,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of GD. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in General Dynamics by 118.3% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,663,847 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $567,372,000 after purchasing an additional 901,679 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in General Dynamics by 35.0% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,332,917 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,136,525,000 after buying an additional 863,392 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,238,561 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $8,265,349,000 after acquiring an additional 677,665 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted 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 acquiring an additional 658,081 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of General Dynamics by 6,680.8% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 591,488 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $199,130,000 after purchasing an additional 582,765 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of General Dynamics from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. BNP Paribas Exane cut their price target on shares of General Dynamics from $430.00 to $390.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 30th. DA Davidson reduced their price target on shares of General Dynamics from $384.00 to $375.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on General Dynamics from $385.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut General Dynamics from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $388.40.

Insider Activity at General Dynamics

In other news, EVP Mark Lagrand Burns sold 36,480 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.29, for a total transaction of $12,596,179.20. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 38,975 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,457,677.75. This represents a 48.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

General Dynamics Stock Performance

Shares of General Dynamics stock opened at $359.08 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $97.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The business has a 50-day moving average of $340.51 and a 200 day moving average of $346.78. General Dynamics Corporation has a 12 month low of $275.49 and a 12 month high of $369.70.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $13.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.70 billion. General Dynamics had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 17.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.66 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that General Dynamics Corporation will post 16.62 earnings per share for the current year.

General Dynamics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 2nd will be given a $1.59 dividend. This represents a $6.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 2nd. General Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.03%.

About General Dynamics

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.