Vontobel Holding Ltd. Sells 770 Shares of General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. decreased its stake in shares of General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 23,406 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 770 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in General Dynamics were worth $6,078,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in General Dynamics by 0.6% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in General Dynamics by 12.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,360,526 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $3,615,185,000 after purchasing an additional 1,755,276 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in General Dynamics by 6.5% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,228,831 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $962,711,000 after purchasing an additional 259,855 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC raised its stake in General Dynamics by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 4,017,057 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $887,649,000 after purchasing an additional 17,061 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its stake in General Dynamics by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,622,031 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $650,552,000 after purchasing an additional 282,436 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $286.00 to $296.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Alembic Global Advisors cut shares of General Dynamics from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $296.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $285.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $253.00 to $284.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $283.80.

General Dynamics Stock Performance

GD opened at $284.48 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $278.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $258.85. General Dynamics Co. has a 1-year low of $202.35 and a 1-year high of $296.50. The company has a market cap of $78.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.67, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.68.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The aerospace company reported $3.64 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.68 by ($0.04). General Dynamics had a return on equity of 16.61% and a net margin of 7.84%. The business had revenue of $11.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.58 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that General Dynamics Co. will post 14.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 12th will be issued a $1.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 11th. This represents a $5.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.00%. This is an increase from General Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.32. General Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Mark C. Roualet sold 73,330 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.75, for a total value of $19,414,117.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 149,205 shares in the company, valued at $39,502,023.75. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Mark C. Roualet sold 73,330 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.75, for a total value of $19,414,117.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 149,205 shares in the company, valued at $39,502,023.75. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Phebe N. Novakovic sold 32,355 shares of General Dynamics stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.31, for a total transaction of $8,551,750.05. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 773,977 shares in the company, valued at approximately $204,569,860.87. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.