Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) Competitors

Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) and General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) are both large-cap aerospace companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment and risk.

Do analysts recommend HII or GD?

Huntington Ingalls Industries currently has a consensus price target of $264.43, suggesting a potential downside of 7.56%. General Dynamics has a consensus price target of $319.00, suggesting a potential downside of 6.95%. Given General Dynamics' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe General Dynamics is more favorable than Huntington Ingalls Industries.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Huntington Ingalls Industries	1 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.20
General Dynamics	1 Sell rating(s)	11 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.48

Is HII or GD a better dividend stock?

Huntington Ingalls Industries pays an annual dividend of $5.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. General Dynamics pays an annual dividend of $6.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Huntington Ingalls Industries pays out 40.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. General Dynamics pays out 40.3% 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 increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years and General Dynamics has increased its dividend for 34 consecutive years.

Which has more volatility and risk, HII or GD?

Huntington Ingalls Industries has a beta of 0.38, indicating that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, General Dynamics has a beta of 0.47, indicating that its stock price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is HII or GD more profitable?

General Dynamics has a net margin of 8.13% compared to Huntington Ingalls Industries' net margin of 4.54%. General Dynamics' return on equity of 17.99% beat Huntington Ingalls Industries' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Huntington Ingalls Industries	4.54%	11.34%	4.43%
General Dynamics	8.13%	17.99%	7.21%

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of HII or GD?

90.5% of Huntington Ingalls Industries shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.1% of General Dynamics shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Huntington Ingalls Industries shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of General Dynamics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media refer more to HII or GD?

In the previous week, General Dynamics had 21 more articles in the media than Huntington Ingalls Industries. MarketBeat recorded 48 mentions for General Dynamics and 27 mentions for Huntington Ingalls Industries. Huntington Ingalls Industries' average media sentiment score of 1.23 beat General Dynamics' score of 1.16 indicating that Huntington Ingalls Industries is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Huntington Ingalls Industries	7 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
General Dynamics	31 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has better earnings and valuation, HII or GD?

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.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Huntington Ingalls Industries	$11.57B	0.97	$550M	$13.36	21.41
General Dynamics	$47.72B	1.93	$3.78B	$14.90	23.01

Summary

General Dynamics beats Huntington Ingalls Industries on 17 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.