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

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

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on GD. Alembic Global Advisors cut shares of 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. StockNews.com cut shares of General Dynamics from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report on Saturday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted 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. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $285.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, General Dynamics has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $285.63.

General Dynamics Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of GD stock traded down $0.55 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $284.35. 524,315 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,105,539. General Dynamics has a 12 month low of $202.35 and a 12 month high of $296.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $280.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $261.39. The stock has a market cap of $78.02 billion, a PE ratio of 23.24, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $10.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.64 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that General Dynamics will post 14.56 EPS for the current year.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Investors of record on Friday, April 12th will be issued a dividend of $1.42 per share. This is a positive change from General Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.32. This represents a $5.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 11th. General Dynamics’s dividend 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 company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 773,977 shares in the company, valued at approximately $204,569,860.87. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of General Dynamics

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in General Dynamics by 12.0% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,755,276 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC raised its stake in General Dynamics by 3.7% during the 4th 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 period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in General Dynamics during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $728,284,000. Finally, FMR LLC grew its holdings in General Dynamics by 13.7% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. 86.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

General Dynamics Company Profile

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.