Wendell David Associates Inc. Invests $201,000 in General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD)

Wendell David Associates Inc. bought a new stake in General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 737 shares of the aerospace company’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in General Dynamics by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,780,078 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $6,265,813,000 after purchasing an additional 706,317 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position 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 valued at $1,774,381,000 after purchasing an additional 463,497 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in General Dynamics by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,688,672 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,496,939,000 after purchasing an additional 131,268 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of General Dynamics by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 4,212,422 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,109,931,000 after purchasing an additional 33,962 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,935,046 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $773,355,000 after buying an additional 145,978 shares in the last quarter. 86.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GD has been the topic of several research reports. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of General Dynamics from $335.00 to $330.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. William Blair lowered shares of General Dynamics from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of General Dynamics from $261.00 to $236.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $268.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, TD Securities raised their price target on General Dynamics from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $293.00.

General Dynamics Stock Down 1.4%

NYSE:GD opened at $278.96 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $275.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $266.38. General Dynamics Co. has a 52-week low of $239.20 and a 52-week high of $316.90. The company has a market cap of $74.87 billion, a PE ratio of 20.45, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.46. 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 (NYSE:GD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The aerospace company reported $3.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $12.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.92 billion. General Dynamics had a net margin of 7.93% and a return on equity of 17.10%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.88 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that General Dynamics Co. will post 14.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Dynamics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.15%. General Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.