Thompson Investment Management Inc. Cuts Position in General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD)

Thompson Investment Management Inc. reduced its position in shares of General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD) by 33.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 590 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 300 shares during the period. Thompson Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in General Dynamics were worth $155,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GD. Entropy Technologies LP boosted its holdings in General Dynamics by 772.7% in the fourth quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 25,212 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $6,643,000 after purchasing an additional 22,323 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in General Dynamics by 15.3% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 9,689 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $2,553,000 after acquiring an additional 1,283 shares during the last quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of General Dynamics by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC now owns 9,469 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $2,495,000 after purchasing an additional 725 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Resource Group purchased a new stake in shares of General Dynamics during the 4th quarter worth $4,723,000. Finally, Hendershot Investments Inc. increased its holdings in General Dynamics by 10.3% in the fourth quarter. Hendershot Investments Inc. now owns 38,556 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $10,159,000 after buying an additional 3,608 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group lowered their price objective on General Dynamics from $337.00 to $281.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Vertical Research downgraded General Dynamics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $352.00 to $290.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wolfe Research cut shares of General Dynamics from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Baird R W cut General Dynamics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $343.00 to $331.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $300.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Dynamics

In other news, VP Christopher J. Brady sold 5,540 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.91, for a total value of $1,556,241.40. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 20,296 shares in the company, valued at $5,701,349.36. This represents a 21.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Laura J. Schumacher sold 1,796 shares of General Dynamics stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.68, for a total value of $459,201.28. Following the sale, the director now owns 11,175 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,857,224. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.52% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

General Dynamics Stock Down 0.3 %

GD opened at $254.84 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 0.61. General Dynamics Co. has a 12 month low of $247.01 and a 12 month high of $316.90. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $264.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $285.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The aerospace company reported $4.15 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.29 by ($0.14). General Dynamics had a return on equity of 17.10% and a net margin of 7.93%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that General Dynamics Co. will post 14.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Dynamics Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 17th were paid a dividend of $1.42 per share. This represents a $5.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 17th. General Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.64%.

General Dynamics announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, December 4th that allows the company to repurchase 10,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the aerospace company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.