Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Has $4.95 Million Stock Holdings in General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System grew its position in General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 19,053 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after purchasing an additional 357 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in General Dynamics were worth $4,947,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in General Dynamics by 0.6% during the third 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 shares of General Dynamics by 12.0% during 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 in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 0.4% in the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 4,017,057 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $887,649,000 after buying an additional 17,061 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 13.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,293,269 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $506,744,000 after buying an additional 275,947 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in General Dynamics by 4.5% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,258,362 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $499,030,000 after acquiring an additional 97,789 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on GD shares. Alembic Global Advisors cut shares of General Dynamics from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $296.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 29th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $301.00 to $333.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of General Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $305.00 to $335.00 in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $325.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $280.00 to $298.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $300.53.

General Dynamics Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GD traded up $3.23 during trading on Monday, hitting $291.37. The company had a trading volume of 870,235 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,113,557. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $282.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $264.06. General Dynamics Co. has a fifty-two week low of $202.35 and a fifty-two week high of $296.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $79.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The aerospace company reported $2.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.89 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $10.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.26 billion. General Dynamics had a net margin of 7.85% and a return on equity of 16.48%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.64 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that General Dynamics Co. will post 14.55 earnings per share for the current year.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 12th will be paid a dividend of $1.42 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 11th. This is an increase from General Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.32. This represents a $5.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. General Dynamics’s payout ratio is 46.33%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Phebe N. Novakovic sold 49,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $284.50, for a total value of $14,182,325.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 768,977 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $218,773,956.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Phebe N. Novakovic sold 49,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $284.50, for a total transaction of $14,182,325.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 768,977 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $218,773,956.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Gregory S. Gallopoulos sold 13,567 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.51, for a total transaction of $3,914,215.17. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 103,345 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,816,065.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

General Dynamics 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.