Trajan Wealth LLC Acquires 2,156 Shares of General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD)

Trajan Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD - Free Report) by 7.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 29,291 shares of the aerospace company's stock after purchasing an additional 2,156 shares during the quarter. Trajan Wealth LLC's holdings in General Dynamics were worth $7,718,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of General Dynamics by 43.1% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 942,485 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $284,818,000 after buying an additional 283,972 shares during the last quarter. Tudor Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in General Dynamics during the third quarter valued at about $393,000. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co lifted its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 9,078 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $2,743,000 after buying an additional 352 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in General Dynamics in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,892,000. Finally, Arvest Bank Trust Division purchased a new position in General Dynamics in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $20,667,000. 86.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GD. Baird R W cut General Dynamics from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $305.00 to $300.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. William Blair downgraded shares of General Dynamics from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. TD Securities upped their price target on shares of General Dynamics from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on General Dynamics from $335.00 to $330.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, General Dynamics has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $293.83.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Laura J. Schumacher sold 1,796 shares of General Dynamics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.68, for a total value of $459,201.28. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 11,175 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,857,224. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Marguerite Amy Gilliland sold 27,562 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.11, for a total value of $7,499,895.82. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 45,192 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $12,297,195.12. This represents a 37.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.50% of the company's stock.

General Dynamics Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:GD traded down $0.19 on Friday, reaching $271.53. 444,186 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,362,610. The stock has a market capitalization of $72.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.43. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $263.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $272.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. General Dynamics Co. has a 52 week low of $239.20 and a 52 week high of $316.90.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The aerospace company reported $3.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.23. General Dynamics had a return on equity of 17.10% and a net margin of 7.93%. The business had revenue of $12.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.92 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that General Dynamics Co. will post 14.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 9th. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be 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 2.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. General Dynamics's dividend payout ratio is currently 41.61%.

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.