General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD) Shares Sold by Colonial Trust Co SC

Colonial Trust Co SC decreased its position in General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD) by 8.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,506 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 219 shares during the quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC’s holdings in General Dynamics were worth $660,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GD. Purus Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in General Dynamics by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Purus Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,660 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $701,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the period. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 1,051 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $277,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Austin Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of General Dynamics by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Austin Wealth Management LLC now owns 826 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $220,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 35.8% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 163 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stokes Family Office LLC grew its stake in General Dynamics by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Stokes Family Office LLC now owns 10,279 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $2,708,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on GD. TD Securities increased their target price on General Dynamics from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. William Blair downgraded shares of General Dynamics from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $245.00 to $241.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. BTIG Research cut shares of General Dynamics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on General Dynamics from $307.00 to $284.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $293.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Marguerite Amy Gilliland sold 27,562 shares of General Dynamics 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 $12,297,195.12. The trade was a 37.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

General Dynamics Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE:GD opened at $269.58 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $72.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.76, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.37. General Dynamics Co. has a 1 year low of $239.20 and a 1 year high of $316.90. The business has a fifty day moving average of $268.03 and a 200-day moving average of $270.44.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $12.22 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.92 billion. General Dynamics had a net margin of 7.93% and a return on equity of 17.10%. General Dynamics’s revenue was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.88 EPS. Equities analysts predict that General Dynamics Co. will post 14.83 earnings per share for the current year.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid 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 2.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. General Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.61%.

About General Dynamics

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.