Wealthfront Advisers LLC Purchases 8,450 Shares of General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD)

Wealthfront Advisers LLC lifted its position in General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD) by 32.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 34,560 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after buying an additional 8,450 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC’s holdings in General Dynamics were worth $9,106,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GD. United Bank lifted its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 4.0% in the third quarter. United Bank now owns 5,776 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,746,000 after buying an additional 224 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of General Dynamics in the third quarter worth approximately $115,000. Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its position in General Dynamics by 19.6% during the third quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 3,258 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $985,000 after purchasing an additional 534 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in General Dynamics by 0.9% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 588,619 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $177,881,000 after purchasing an additional 5,069 shares during the period. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in General Dynamics by 16.2% during the third quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,895 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $1,479,000 after purchasing an additional 684 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Dynamics

In other General Dynamics news, Director Laura J. Schumacher sold 1,796 shares of General Dynamics stock in a transaction on Friday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.68, for a total value of $459,201.28. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 11,175 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,857,224. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Marguerite Amy Gilliland sold 27,562 shares of General Dynamics stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.11, for a total transaction of $7,499,895.82. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 45,192 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,297,195.12. This represents a 37.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.52% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on GD shares. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $290.00 to $280.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $305.00 to $285.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of General Dynamics from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and set a $300.00 price objective (down previously from $345.00) on shares of General Dynamics in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, William Blair downgraded shares of General Dynamics from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $297.71.

General Dynamics Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of GD stock opened at $260.21 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $70.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.08, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.59. General Dynamics Co. has a one year low of $239.87 and a one year high of $316.90. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $257.92 and its 200-day moving average price is $279.30. 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 data 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 net margin of 7.93% and a return on equity of 17.10%. Sell-side analysts expect that General Dynamics Co. will post 14.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Dynamics declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, December 4th that allows the company to repurchase 10,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the aerospace company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. This is an increase from General Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.42. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. General Dynamics’s payout ratio is currently 43.99%.

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.