North Dakota State Investment Board Takes Position in General Dynamics Corporation $GD

North Dakota State Investment Board bought a new stake in General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 8,666 shares of the aerospace company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,917,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GD. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in General Dynamics by 118.3% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,663,847 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $567,372,000 after acquiring an additional 901,679 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in General Dynamics by 35.0% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,332,917 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $1,136,525,000 after acquiring an additional 863,392 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in General Dynamics by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,238,561 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $8,265,349,000 after acquiring an additional 677,665 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in General Dynamics by 831.1% during the 3rd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 737,259 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $251,405,000 after acquiring an additional 658,081 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in General Dynamics by 6,680.8% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 591,488 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $199,130,000 after acquiring an additional 582,765 shares during the last quarter. 86.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on GD shares. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price objective on General Dynamics from $430.00 to $390.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of General Dynamics in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on General Dynamics from $410.00 to $435.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Argus upped their price objective on General Dynamics from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of General Dynamics in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, General Dynamics presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.40.

General Dynamics Stock Performance

Shares of GD stock opened at $343.25 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $92.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.34. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $343.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $346.60. General Dynamics Corporation has a 12-month low of $268.10 and a 12-month high of $369.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The aerospace company reported $4.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.43. The business had revenue of $13.48 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.70 billion. General Dynamics had a return on equity of 17.41% and a net margin of 8.07%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.66 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that General Dynamics Corporation will post 16.62 EPS for the current year.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $1.59 per share. This is a positive change from General Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 10th. This represents a $6.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. General Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.03%.

Insider Transactions at General Dynamics

In related news, EVP Mark Lagrand Burns sold 36,480 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.29, for a total value of $12,596,179.20. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 38,975 shares in the company, valued at $13,457,677.75. This represents a 48.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Marguerite Amy Gilliland sold 3,819 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.50, for a total value of $1,350,016.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 44,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,825,134.50. This represents a 7.86% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 119,600 shares of company stock valued at $41,650,580. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

About General Dynamics

General Dynamics is a major American aerospace and defense contractor that designs, manufactures and supports a broad range of products and services for government and commercial customers worldwide. Headquartered in the United States (Reston, Virginia), the company supplies platforms and systems used by armed forces, civil authorities and private operators across multiple domains including air, land, sea and cyber.

Its principal activities span several operating businesses: a business aviation unit that develops and supports Gulfstream business jets; land systems that produce armored combat vehicles and related logistics and sustainment services; marine systems that design and construct submarines and surface ships for navies; and mission systems and information technology operations that provide command-and-control, communications, cybersecurity and systems-integration services.