Sapient Capital LLC Sells 302 Shares of Northrop Grumman Co. (NYSE:NOC)

Sapient Capital LLC cut its position in Northrop Grumman Co. (NYSE:NOC) by 13.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,027 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 302 shares during the period. Sapient Capital LLC’s holdings in Northrop Grumman were worth $1,070,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. V Square Quantitative Management LLC raised its position in shares of Northrop Grumman by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 458 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $214,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Northrop Grumman during the fourth quarter worth about $771,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Northrop Grumman by 7,574.5% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 123,637 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $57,879,000 after acquiring an additional 122,026 shares during the last quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC raised its position in shares of Northrop Grumman by 137.6% during the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,827 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,697,000 after acquiring an additional 2,216 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MONECO Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Northrop Grumman during the fourth quarter worth about $227,000. 83.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NOC. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Northrop Grumman from $579.00 to $592.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut Northrop Grumman from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $477.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, June 21st. TD Cowen raised Northrop Grumman to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Northrop Grumman from $467.00 to $509.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Northrop Grumman from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Northrop Grumman currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $535.00.

Northrop Grumman Price Performance

Northrop Grumman stock opened at $534.50 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $518.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $477.37. Northrop Grumman Co. has a 52 week low of $418.60 and a 52 week high of $555.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. The stock has a market cap of $79.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.38, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.34.

Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The aerospace company reported $6.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.93 by $0.43. Northrop Grumman had a return on equity of 25.44% and a net margin of 5.61%. The firm had revenue of $10.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $5.34 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Northrop Grumman Co. will post 25.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Northrop Grumman Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were paid a $2.06 dividend. This represents a $8.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. Northrop Grumman’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 4,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,317,000. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Northrop Grumman news, VP Thomas H. Jones sold 1,389 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $477.56, for a total transaction of $663,330.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 6,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,225,917.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Thomas H. Jones sold 1,390 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $500.00, for a total value of $695,000.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 4,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,317,000. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,879 shares of company stock valued at $1,410,703. Insiders own 0.22% of the company’s stock.

Northrop Grumman 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.