WCG Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 17,427 General Dynamics Corporation $GD

WCG Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 17,427 shares of the aerospace company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,867,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in General Dynamics by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,767,330 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $8,338,169,000 after acquiring an additional 528,769 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in General Dynamics by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,065,462 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $2,039,742,000 after acquiring an additional 195,604 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,627,155 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $1,236,900,000 after purchasing an additional 187,435 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 35.0% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,332,917 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $1,136,525,000 after purchasing an additional 863,392 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of General Dynamics by 3.4% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,770,714 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $603,813,000 after purchasing an additional 58,524 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GD. Wall Street Zen downgraded General Dynamics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 23rd. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of General Dynamics from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 19th. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $430.00 to $390.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $380.00 to $364.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on shares of General Dynamics from $385.00 to $371.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, General Dynamics currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.40.

General Dynamics Stock Performance

Shares of GD opened at $341.93 on Friday. General Dynamics Corporation has a 1 year low of $268.10 and a 1 year high of $369.70. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $340.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $346.30. The company has a market capitalization of $92.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.52, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 1.38.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The aerospace company reported $4.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.43. General Dynamics had a return on equity of 17.41% and a net margin of 8.07%.The company had revenue of $13.48 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.66 EPS. General Dynamics’s revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that General Dynamics Corporation will post 16.62 EPS for the current year.

General Dynamics Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 2nd will be given a dividend of $1.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 2nd. This represents a $6.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. General Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio is 40.03%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Dynamics news, CEO Phebe N. Novakovic sold 32,918 shares of General Dynamics stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.09, for a total value of $11,655,934.62. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 766,457 shares in the company, valued at $271,394,759.13. This trade represents a 4.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Mark Lagrand Burns sold 36,480 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.29, for a total value of $12,596,179.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 38,975 shares in the company, valued at $13,457,677.75. This trade represents a 48.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 119,600 shares of company stock valued at $41,650,580 over the last quarter. Company 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.