Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Makes New Investment in General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky bought a new position in General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD – Get Rating) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 21,499 shares of the aerospace company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,561,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GD. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 103.6% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,544,906 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,005,561,000 after purchasing an additional 2,312,118 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 4.5% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,906,138 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $4,647,825,000 after purchasing an additional 952,906 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 31.5% in the second quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,411,406 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $312,273,000 after purchasing an additional 337,999 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of General Dynamics in the first quarter worth $59,754,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of General Dynamics by 890.8% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 235,800 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $52,171,000 after purchasing an additional 212,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.83% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on GD. Cowen boosted their price target on General Dynamics from $260.00 to $285.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 3rd. Credit Suisse Group reduced their price objective on General Dynamics from $240.00 to $222.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 26th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on General Dynamics from $243.00 to $248.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on General Dynamics from $260.00 to $245.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 27th. Finally, StockNews.com cut General Dynamics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, General Dynamics currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $267.15.

General Dynamics Stock Performance

Shares of GD opened at $218.15 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $231.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $236.84. The stock has a market cap of $59.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.88, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.84. General Dynamics Co. has a 52 week low of $207.42 and a 52 week high of $256.86.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 25th. The aerospace company reported $3.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.53 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $10.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.66 billion. General Dynamics had a return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 8.60%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.39 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that General Dynamics Co. will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 14th will be paid a $1.32 dividend. This is a positive change from General Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.26. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 13th. This represents a $5.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.42%. General Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio is 41.31%.

Insider Transactions at General Dynamics

In other news, VP Mark Lagrand Burns sold 27,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.93, for a total value of $6,263,268.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 56,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,914,359.37. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

About General Dynamics

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General Dynamics Corp. is a global aerospace and defense company, which engages in design, engineering, and manufacturing to deliver state-of-the-art solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Aerospace, Marine Systems, Combat Systems, and Technologies. The Aerospace segment designs, manufactures, and sells business jets.