Legal & General Group Plc Buys 12,129 Shares of General Dynamics Corporation $GD

Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) by 1.2% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,056,617 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after buying an additional 12,129 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in General Dynamics were worth $374,296,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of GD. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of General Dynamics during the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,840,590,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in General Dynamics in the second quarter worth about $429,073,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 118.3% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,663,847 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $567,372,000 after acquiring an additional 901,679 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of General Dynamics by 35.0% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,332,917 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,136,525,000 after purchasing an additional 863,392 shares during the period. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 831.1% in the third quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 737,259 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $251,405,000 after purchasing an additional 658,081 shares in the last quarter. 86.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GD has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $400.00 to $440.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on General Dynamics from $327.00 to $313.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Weiss Ratings raised General Dynamics from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and issued a $384.00 price objective on shares of General Dynamics in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on General Dynamics from $366.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $410.89.

General Dynamics Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of GD stock opened at $376.49 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $374.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $356.25. General Dynamics Corporation has a 12-month low of $306.77 and a 12-month high of $400.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $101.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The aerospace company reported $4.24 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $14.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.52 billion. General Dynamics had a return on equity of 17.43% and a net margin of 8.18%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.74 EPS. General Dynamics has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.800-16.900 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that General Dynamics Corporation will post 16.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Dynamics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 13th. Investors of record on Friday, October 9th will be given a $1.59 dividend. This represents a $6.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 9th. General Dynamics’s payout ratio is currently 38.80%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Mark Malcolm sold 5,480 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $365.00, for a total transaction of $2,000,200.00. Following the sale, the director owned 10,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,884,695. This represents a 33.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Phebe N. Novakovic sold 51,568 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $382.58, for a total transaction of $19,728,885.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 766,457 shares in the company, valued at approximately $293,231,119.06. This trade represents a 6.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 100,228 shares of company stock worth $38,052,853. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

General Dynamics Company Profile

General Dynamics is a major American aerospace and defense contractor that designs, manufactures and supports a broad range of products and services for government and commercial customers worldwide. Headquartered in the United States (Reston, Virginia), the company supplies platforms and systems used by armed forces, civil authorities and private operators across multiple domains including air, land, sea and cyber.

Its principal activities span several operating businesses: a business aviation unit that develops and supports Gulfstream business jets; land systems that produce armored combat vehicles and related logistics and sustainment services; marine systems that design and construct submarines and surface ships for navies; and mission systems and information technology operations that provide command-and-control, communications, cybersecurity and systems-integration services.