Fifth Third Bancorp Grows Stock Holdings in General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD)

Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD - Free Report) by 1.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 217,148 shares of the aerospace company's stock after buying an additional 4,149 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp owned approximately 0.08% of General Dynamics worth $61,342,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in General Dynamics in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of General Dynamics during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of General Dynamics during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of General Dynamics during the 1st quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Legend Financial Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of General Dynamics by 46.8% during the 1st quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 113 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. 86.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GD has been the subject of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $253.00 to $284.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $291.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of General Dynamics from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $285.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Alembic Global Advisors downgraded shares of General Dynamics from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $296.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $297.06.

Insider Activity at General Dynamics

In related news, CEO Phebe N. Novakovic sold 49,850 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $284.50, for a total transaction of $14,182,325.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 768,977 shares in the company, valued at $218,773,956.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Phebe N. Novakovic sold 49,850 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $284.50, for a total transaction of $14,182,325.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 768,977 shares in the company, valued at $218,773,956.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Gregory S. Gallopoulos sold 13,567 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.51, for a total transaction of $3,914,215.17. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 103,345 shares in the company, valued at $29,816,065.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

General Dynamics Stock Up 0.3 %

GD traded up $0.83 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $287.36. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,134,813 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,118,058. The firm has a market capitalization of $78.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.44, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. General Dynamics Co. has a 1 year low of $202.35 and a 1 year high of $296.50. The stock's 50-day moving average is $282.18 and its 200-day moving average is $263.05.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The aerospace company reported $2.88 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.89 by ($0.01). General Dynamics had a net margin of 7.85% and a return on equity of 16.48%. The firm had revenue of $10.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $10.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.64 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that General Dynamics Co. will post 14.55 EPS for the current year.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Investors of record on Friday, April 12th will be given a dividend of $1.42 per share. This is an increase from General Dynamics's previous quarterly dividend of $1.32. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 11th. This represents a $5.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.98%. General Dynamics's dividend payout ratio is 46.33%.

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.

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