Perennial Advisors LLC Acquires New Stake in General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD)

Perennial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 24,349 shares of the aerospace company's stock, valued at approximately $6,416,000. General Dynamics comprises approximately 1.4% of Perennial Advisors LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Financial Life Planners acquired a new position in General Dynamics during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new position in General Dynamics during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in General Dynamics during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in General Dynamics during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Hoey Investments Inc. acquired a new position in General Dynamics during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Institutional investors own 86.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on GD shares. Argus set a $295.00 price objective on General Dynamics in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. BTIG Research downgraded General Dynamics from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. William Blair downgraded General Dynamics from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on General Dynamics from $290.00 to $280.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, TD Securities boosted their price objective on General Dynamics from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, General Dynamics presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $293.00.

General Dynamics Stock Down 2.0%

GD traded down $5.63 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $273.60. 1,006,125 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,375,788. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.37. The company's fifty day moving average price is $271.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $267.75. The company has a market cap of $73.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.49. General Dynamics Co. has a one year low of $239.20 and a one year high of $316.90.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The aerospace company reported $3.66 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $12.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.92 billion. General Dynamics had a return on equity of 17.10% and a net margin of 7.93%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.88 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that General Dynamics Co. will post 14.83 EPS for the current year.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th were issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This is a positive change from General Dynamics's previous quarterly dividend of $1.42. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 11th. General Dynamics's payout ratio is currently 41.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Marguerite Amy Gilliland sold 27,562 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.11, for a total value of $7,499,895.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 45,192 shares of the company's stock, valued at $12,297,195.12. This represents a 37.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company's stock.

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.