Panagora Asset Management Inc. Increases Stock Position in General Dynamics Corporation $GD

Key Points

• Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in General Dynamics Corporation by 305.8%, acquiring an additional 52,550 shares to bring its total to 69,732 shares worth approximately $19 million.
• General Dynamics reported earnings of $3.74 per share for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' predictions, with revenue also growing by 8.9% year-over-year to $13.04 billion.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, which will be paid to stockholders on November 14, representing a 1.8% dividend yield.

Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD - Free Report) by 305.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 69,732 shares of the aerospace company's stock after purchasing an additional 52,550 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in General Dynamics were worth $19,008,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Retirement Guys Formula LLC acquired a new position in shares of General Dynamics during the 1st quarter worth about $1,692,000. Advisory Resource Group raised its holdings in General Dynamics by 7.1% in the 1st quarter. Advisory Resource Group now owns 19,200 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $5,234,000 after acquiring an additional 1,276 shares during the last quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP raised its holdings in General Dynamics by 18.9% in the 1st quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP now owns 16,144 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $4,401,000 after acquiring an additional 2,568 shares during the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY raised its holdings in General Dynamics by 31.6% in the 1st quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 33,644 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $9,171,000 after acquiring an additional 8,073 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Global Wealth Management Investment Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in General Dynamics by 11.5% in the 1st quarter. Global Wealth Management Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 16,522 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $4,504,000 after acquiring an additional 1,704 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.14% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group set a $325.00 price objective on shares of General Dynamics and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of General Dynamics from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $298.00 to $342.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of General Dynamics in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $314.00 price target on shares of General Dynamics and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of General Dynamics from $348.00 to $368.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, General Dynamics presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $315.78.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Mark Lagrand Burns sold 43,860 shares of General Dynamics stock in a transaction on Monday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.28, for a total transaction of $13,696,600.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 39,875 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $12,452,165. The trade was a 52.38% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Christopher J. Brady sold 8,150 shares of General Dynamics stock in a transaction on Monday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.18, for a total transaction of $2,617,617.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 22,818 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,328,685.24. This trade represents a 26.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 458,260 shares of company stock worth $138,125,545 over the last three months. 1.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

General Dynamics Trading Down 0.2%

General Dynamics stock traded down $0.66 during trading on Thursday, hitting $322.16. The company had a trading volume of 421,432 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,402,137. General Dynamics Corporation has a 1-year low of $239.20 and a 1-year high of $326.02. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $309.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $283.12. The stock has a market cap of $86.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.50.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The aerospace company reported $3.74 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.47 by $0.27. General Dynamics had a net margin of 8.13% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The company had revenue of $13.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $12.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.26 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. General Dynamics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 15.050-15.150 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that General Dynamics Corporation will post 14.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Dynamics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. General Dynamics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.27%.

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.