Valmark Advisers Inc. Sells 91 Shares of General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD)

Valmark Advisers Inc. decreased its stake in shares of General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,189 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 91 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in General Dynamics were worth $1,867,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GD. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in General Dynamics by 99.3% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 29,045 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $7,542,000 after buying an additional 14,468 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec purchased a new stake in General Dynamics during the third quarter valued at approximately $16,077,000. Moreno Evelyn V increased its holdings in General Dynamics by 17.1% during the third quarter. Moreno Evelyn V now owns 27,310 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $6,035,000 after buying an additional 3,991 shares during the last quarter. Clough Capital Partners L P purchased a new stake in General Dynamics during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,868,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in General Dynamics by 57.7% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 326,121 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $72,063,000 after buying an additional 119,264 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $285.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $253.00 to $284.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $301.00 to $333.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of General Dynamics from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of General Dynamics from $291.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, General Dynamics presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.63.

General Dynamics Trading Down 0.2 %

General Dynamics stock traded down $0.49 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $284.41. The company had a trading volume of 1,244,205 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,231,567. General Dynamics Co. has a 1 year low of $202.35 and a 1 year high of $296.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.44. The firm has a market cap of $78.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $280.86 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $261.71.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The aerospace company reported $2.88 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.89 by ($0.01). General Dynamics had a net margin of 7.85% and a return on equity of 16.48%. The business had revenue of $10.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.64 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that General Dynamics Co. will post 14.56 earnings per share for the current year.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Investors of record on Friday, April 12th will be paid a dividend of $1.42 per share. This represents a $5.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 11th. This is a positive change from General Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.32. General Dynamics’s payout ratio is 46.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other General Dynamics news, CEO Phebe N. Novakovic sold 32,355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.31, for a total transaction of $8,551,750.05. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 773,977 shares in the company, valued at approximately $204,569,860.87. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.