General Dynamics (GD) vs. Its Rivals Critical Contrast

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) is one of 229 publicly-traded companies in the “Aerospace & Defense” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare General Dynamics to related businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, valuation and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

86.1% of General Dynamics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 49.5% of shares of all “Aerospace & Defense” companies are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of General Dynamics shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 11.9% of shares of all “Aerospace & Defense” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for General Dynamics and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
General Dynamics	1	5	11	0	2.59
General Dynamics Competitors	2148	8220	12702	577	2.50

General Dynamics currently has a consensus price target of $402.44, indicating a potential upside of 7.98%. As a group, “Aerospace & Defense” companies have a potential upside of 25.73%. Given General Dynamics’ peers higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe General Dynamics has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares General Dynamics and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
General Dynamics	8.18%	17.43%	7.67%
General Dynamics Competitors	-289.55%	-47.45%	-4.31%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares General Dynamics and its peers revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
General Dynamics	$52.55 billion	$4.21 billion	22.74
General Dynamics Competitors	$8.34 billion	$569.54 million	24.75

General Dynamics has higher revenue and earnings than its peers. General Dynamics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

General Dynamics pays an annual dividend of $6.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. General Dynamics pays out 38.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Aerospace & Defense” companies pay a dividend yield of 1.1% and pay out 38.6% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. General Dynamics has increased its dividend for 34 consecutive years.

Risk & Volatility

General Dynamics has a beta of 0.33, suggesting that its stock price is 67% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, General Dynamics’ peers have a beta of 1.34, suggesting that their average stock price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

General Dynamics beats its peers on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About General Dynamics

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. The Marine Systems segment designs and builds nuclear-powered submarines, surface combatants, and auxiliary ships for the United States Navy and Jones Act ships for commercial customers, as well as builds crude oil and product tankers, and container and cargo ships; provides maintenance, modernization, and lifecycle support services for navy ships; offers and program management, planning, engineering, and design support services for submarine construction programs. The Combat Systems segment manufactures land combat solutions, such as wheeled and tracked combat vehicles, Stryker wheeled combat vehicles, piranha vehicles, weapons systems, munitions, mobile bridge systems with payloads, tactical vehicles, main battle tanks, armored vehicles, and armaments; and offers modernization programs, engineering, support, and sustainment services. The Technologies segment provides information technology solutions and mission support services; mobile communication, computers, and command-and-control mission systems; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance solutions to military, intelligence, and federal civilian customers; cloud computing, artificial intelligence; machine learning; big data analytics; development, security, and operations; and unmanned undersea vehicle manufacturing and assembly services. The company was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.