General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) Price Target Lowered to $320.00 at Royal Bank of Canada

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) had its price target lowered by Royal Bank of Canada from $325.00 to $320.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the aerospace company’s stock.

GD has been the subject of several other research reports. Susquehanna increased their target price on General Dynamics from $301.00 to $333.00 and gave the stock a positive rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on General Dynamics from $291.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on General Dynamics from $253.00 to $284.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Alembic Global Advisors cut General Dynamics from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and set a $296.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on General Dynamics from $286.00 to $296.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $285.63.

General Dynamics Stock Performance

GD stock traded down $0.55 during trading on Thursday, reaching $284.35. The stock had a trading volume of 524,315 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,105,539. General Dynamics has a 52 week low of $202.35 and a 52 week high of $296.50. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $280.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $261.39. 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 firm has a market cap of $78.02 billion, a PE ratio of 23.24, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.68.

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

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at General Dynamics

In related 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 value of $8,551,750.05. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 773,977 shares in the company, valued at approximately $204,569,860.87. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,423,961 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $4,955,023,000 after acquiring an additional 133,061 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in General Dynamics by 12.0% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,360,526 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $3,615,185,000 after acquiring an additional 1,755,276 shares during the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its holdings in General Dynamics by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 4,164,857 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,081,488,000 after acquiring an additional 147,800 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of General Dynamics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $728,284,000. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of General Dynamics by 13.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,293,269 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $506,744,000 after buying an additional 275,947 shares during the last quarter. 86.14% of the stock is 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.