Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Sells 4,568 Shares of General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD)

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. cut its holdings in General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD) by 1.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 381,738 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 4,568 shares during the quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in General Dynamics were worth $100,584,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in General Dynamics in the 4th quarter worth $279,582,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in General Dynamics in the 4th quarter worth $197,238,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in General Dynamics by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,780,078 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $6,265,813,000 after purchasing an additional 706,317 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in General Dynamics by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 6,734,148 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,774,381,000 after purchasing an additional 463,497 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its holdings in General Dynamics by 43.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 942,485 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $284,818,000 after purchasing an additional 283,972 shares during the period. 86.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GD has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. TD Securities raised their target price on General Dynamics from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. TD Cowen cut their price target on General Dynamics from $315.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on General Dynamics from $245.00 to $241.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. BTIG Research lowered General Dynamics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on General Dynamics from $290.00 to $280.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $293.00.

Insider Activity at General Dynamics

In other General Dynamics news, SVP Marguerite Amy Gilliland sold 27,562 shares of General Dynamics stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 45,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,297,195.12. The trade was a 37.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

General Dynamics Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of NYSE GD opened at $280.54 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The company has a market cap of $75.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.57, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.49. General Dynamics Co. has a 1 year low of $239.20 and a 1 year high of $316.90. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $269.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $268.65.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The aerospace company reported $3.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.23. General Dynamics had a net margin of 7.93% and a return on equity of 17.10%. The firm had revenue of $12.22 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.88 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that General Dynamics Co. will post 14.83 earnings per share for the current year.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 9th. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th were issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.14%. This is a positive change from General Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 11th. General Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.61%.

General Dynamics 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.