Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) Hits New 1-Year High at $524.42

Northrop Grumman Co. (NYSE:NOC) shares reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $524.42 and last traded at $523.48, with a volume of 14524 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $523.21.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on NOC. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Northrop Grumman from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $477.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 21st. UBS Group raised their price objective on Northrop Grumman from $593.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Barclays raised their target price on Northrop Grumman from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com upgraded Northrop Grumman from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, BTIG Research assumed coverage on Northrop Grumman in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. They set a “buy” rating and a $565.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Northrop Grumman presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $523.20.

Northrop Grumman Trading Up 0.2 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The business has a 50 day moving average of $475.08 and a 200 day moving average of $464.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $77.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.61, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.32.

Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The aerospace company reported $6.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.93 by $0.43. The firm had revenue of $10.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.02 billion. Northrop Grumman had a return on equity of 25.44% and a net margin of 5.61%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $5.34 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Northrop Grumman Co. will post 25.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Northrop Grumman Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be issued a $2.06 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $8.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. Northrop Grumman’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 57.62%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Thomas H. Jones sold 1,390 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $500.00, for a total value of $695,000.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 4,634 shares in the company, valued at $2,317,000. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, VP Thomas H. Jones sold 1,390 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $500.00, for a total value of $695,000.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 4,634 shares in the company, valued at $2,317,000. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Thomas H. Jones sold 1,389 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $477.56, for a total value of $663,330.84. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 6,755 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,225,917.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,813 shares of company stock worth $1,375,877 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.22% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Northrop Grumman

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Ascent Group LLC increased its position in Northrop Grumman by 0.5% during the second quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 4,337 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,891,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC increased its position in Northrop Grumman by 14.1% during the first quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 170 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $81,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Northrop Grumman by 4.6% during the second quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 500 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $218,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group increased its position in Northrop Grumman by 1.5% during the second quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group now owns 1,467 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $640,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Northrop Grumman by 2.4% in the first quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 965 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $462,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.40% of the company’s stock.

Northrop Grumman Company Profile

Northrop Grumman Corporation operates as an aerospace and defense technology company in the United States, Asia/Pacific, Europe, and internationally. The company's Aeronautics Systems segment designs, develops, manufactures, integrates, and sustains aircraft systems. This segment also offers unmanned autonomous aircraft systems, including high-altitude long-endurance strategic ISR systems and vertical take-off and landing tactical ISR systems; and strategic long-range strike aircraft, tactical fighter and air dominance aircraft, and airborne battle management and command and control systems.