Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. Buys 7,333 Shares of General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD)

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. raised its stake in General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) by 35.3% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 28,103 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,333 shares during the quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.’s holdings in General Dynamics were worth $7,660,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of General Dynamics by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,780,078 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $6,265,813,000 after buying an additional 706,317 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in General Dynamics by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 6,734,148 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,774,381,000 after purchasing an additional 463,497 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of General Dynamics by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,688,672 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $1,496,939,000 after purchasing an additional 131,268 shares during the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 4,212,422 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,109,931,000 after buying an additional 33,962 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in shares of General Dynamics by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,935,046 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $773,355,000 after buying an additional 145,978 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on GD shares. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Argus set a $295.00 price target on General Dynamics in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. TD Securities upped their price objective on General Dynamics from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on General Dynamics from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of General Dynamics from $261.00 to $236.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $290.24.

General Dynamics Stock Performance

NYSE GD opened at $294.00 on Friday. General Dynamics Corporation has a 1 year low of $239.20 and a 1 year high of $316.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $278.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $267.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $78.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.46.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The aerospace company reported $3.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $12.22 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.92 billion. General Dynamics had a net margin of 8.08% and a return on equity of 17.82%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.88 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that General Dynamics Corporation will post 14.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Dynamics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.04%. General Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.61%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Phebe N. Novakovic sold 178,821 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $283.13, for a total value of $50,629,589.73. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 769,607 shares in the company, valued at $217,898,829.91. This represents a 18.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

General Dynamics Company 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.