General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) Announces Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.01 EPS

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The aerospace company reported $2.88 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by ($0.01), Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $10.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.26 billion. General Dynamics had a return on equity of 16.61% and a net margin of 7.84%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.64 EPS.

General Dynamics Price Performance

Shares of GD traded up $3.64 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $284.75. 685,070 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,098,848. General Dynamics 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 company has a 50 day moving average of $280.26 and a 200-day moving average of $261.22. The stock has a market cap of $78.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.68.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Investors of record on Friday, April 12th will be given a dividend of $1.42 per share. This represents a $5.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 11th. This is an increase from General Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.32. General Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio is 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Dynamics

In other General Dynamics news, EVP Mark C. Roualet sold 73,330 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.75, for a total value of $19,414,117.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 149,205 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,502,023.75. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Mark C. Roualet sold 73,330 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.75, for a total value of $19,414,117.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 149,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,502,023.75. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Phebe N. Novakovic sold 32,355 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 773,977 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,569,860.87. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Alembic Global Advisors downgraded General Dynamics from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $296.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on General Dynamics from $253.00 to $284.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on General Dynamics from $325.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price target on General Dynamics from $301.00 to $333.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, General Dynamics currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $283.47.

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.