GD vs. HII, HXL, LDOS, LHX, LMT, NOC, RTX, TXT, GE, and BA
Should you be buying General Dynamics stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of General Dynamics include Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), Hexcel (HXL), Leidos (LDOS), L3Harris Technologies (LHX), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Northrop Grumman (NOC), RTX (RTX), Textron (TXT), GE Aerospace (GE), and Boeing (BA).
General Dynamics vs. Its Competitors
Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) and General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) are both large-cap aerospace companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, dividends, media sentiment, profitability, earnings and institutional ownership.
Huntington Ingalls Industries has a beta of 0.31, indicating that its share price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, General Dynamics has a beta of 0.46, indicating that its share price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Huntington Ingalls Industries pays an annual dividend of $5.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. General Dynamics pays an annual dividend of $6.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Huntington Ingalls Industries pays out 38.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. General Dynamics pays out 41.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Huntington Ingalls Industries has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years and General Dynamics has raised its dividend for 34 consecutive years. Huntington Ingalls Industries is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
90.5% of Huntington Ingalls Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.1% of General Dynamics shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of Huntington Ingalls Industries shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of General Dynamics shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, General Dynamics had 7 more articles in the media than Huntington Ingalls Industries. MarketBeat recorded 24 mentions for General Dynamics and 17 mentions for Huntington Ingalls Industries. General Dynamics' average media sentiment score of 1.59 beat Huntington Ingalls Industries' score of 1.19 indicating that General Dynamics is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
General Dynamics has a net margin of 8.08% compared to Huntington Ingalls Industries' net margin of 4.76%. General Dynamics' return on equity of 17.82% beat Huntington Ingalls Industries' return on equity.
Huntington Ingalls Industries presently has a consensus price target of $251.38, indicating a potential downside of 2.67%. General Dynamics has a consensus price target of $294.47, indicating a potential downside of 2.56%. Given General Dynamics' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe General Dynamics is more favorable than Huntington Ingalls Industries.
General Dynamics has higher revenue and earnings than Huntington Ingalls Industries. Huntington Ingalls Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than General Dynamics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
General Dynamics beats Huntington Ingalls Industries on 16 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding GD and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
General Dynamics Competitors List
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This page (NYSE:GD) was last updated on 7/13/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
