Legal & General Group Plc Sells 56,341 Shares of General Dynamics Corporation $GD

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc reduced its General Dynamics stake by 5% in the fourth quarter, selling 56,341 shares while still holding about 1.07 million shares worth roughly $360.5 million.
• Wall Street sentiment is mixed: recent analyst moves included Morgan Stanley raising its target to $435 with an overweight rating, while Goldman Sachs kept a sell rating and trimmed its target to $313. The stock currently carries a consensus Moderate Buy rating with an average target of $387.40.
• General Dynamics reported strong quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue estimates, and it also increased its quarterly dividend to $1.59 per share from $1.50. Insiders have also been active sellers, with executives disposing of 119,600 shares over the last 90 days.

Legal & General Group Plc cut its holdings in General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD - Free Report) by 5.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,070,722 shares of the aerospace company's stock after selling 56,341 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.40% of General Dynamics worth $360,469,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Dunhill Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of General Dynamics by 620.0% in the third quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 72 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. KERR FINANCIAL PLANNING Corp bought a new position in shares of General Dynamics in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Dagco Inc. bought a new position in shares of General Dynamics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Burkett Financial Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of General Dynamics by 650.0% in the third quarter. Burkett Financial Services LLC now owns 75 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Steph & Co. grew its holdings in shares of General Dynamics by 65.2% in the fourth quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 76 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 86.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on GD shares. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on General Dynamics from $410.00 to $435.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on General Dynamics from $327.00 to $313.00 and set a "sell" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Weiss Ratings downgraded General Dynamics from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 19th. BNP Paribas Exane dropped their price objective on General Dynamics from $430.00 to $390.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on General Dynamics from $385.00 to $380.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $387.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Dynamics news, EVP Marguerite Amy Gilliland sold 3,819 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.50, for a total transaction of $1,350,016.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 44,767 shares in the company, valued at $15,825,134.50. This represents a 7.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Mark Lagrand Burns sold 36,480 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 approximately $13,457,677.75. This represents a 48.35% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 119,600 shares of company stock worth $41,650,580 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company's stock.

General Dynamics Price Performance

General Dynamics stock opened at $345.02 on Wednesday. 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. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $341.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $346.52. The company has a market cap of $93.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.71, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.34.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The aerospace company reported $4.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.43. General Dynamics had a return on equity of 17.41% and a net margin of 8.07%.The business had revenue of $13.48 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.66 earnings per share. General Dynamics's revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that General Dynamics Corporation will post 16.62 EPS for the current year.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.59 per share. This is an increase from General Dynamics's previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. This represents a $6.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 10th. General Dynamics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.03%.

General Dynamics Company Profile

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.

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