Commerce Bank Trims Stock Position in General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD)

Commerce Bank lessened its position in shares of General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD) by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 60,024 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 661 shares during the quarter. Commerce Bank’s holdings in General Dynamics were worth $18,139,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GD. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in General Dynamics by 4.0% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,639,758 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $2,216,599,000 after purchasing an additional 293,316 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in General Dynamics by 2.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,782,612 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $1,351,041,000 after purchasing an additional 115,063 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in General Dynamics by 2.4% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,071,803 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $601,756,000 after purchasing an additional 47,915 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its position in General Dynamics by 1.4% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,680,666 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $474,927,000 after purchasing an additional 23,262 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in General Dynamics by 1.5% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,606,289 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $466,049,000 after purchasing an additional 23,304 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on GD shares. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their target price on 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. Barclays upped their price objective on General Dynamics from $325.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered General Dynamics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley raised General Dynamics from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $293.00 to $345.00 in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on General Dynamics from $309.00 to $306.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.69.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Peter A. Wall sold 1,320 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $308.05, for a total transaction of $406,626.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,106,515.60. This represents a 26.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

General Dynamics Stock Performance

NYSE GD opened at $279.98 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.80. General Dynamics Co. has a 1 year low of $243.87 and a 1 year high of $316.90. The company has a market capitalization of $76.99 billion, a PE ratio of 21.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a fifty day moving average of $301.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $296.16.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The aerospace company reported $3.35 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.48 by ($0.13). General Dynamics had a net margin of 7.90% and a return on equity of 16.59%. The business had revenue of $11.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.04 earnings per share. General Dynamics’s quarterly revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that General Dynamics Co. will post 13.98 earnings per share for the current year.

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.