General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.01 EPS

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) posted its earnings results on Wednesday. The aerospace company reported $2.88 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.89 by ($0.01), Briefing.com reports. General Dynamics had a return on equity of 16.61% and a net margin of 7.84%. The firm had revenue of $10.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.64 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

General Dynamics Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:GD traded up $3.64 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $284.75. The stock had a trading volume of 685,070 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,098,848. The firm has a market cap of $78.13 billion, a PE ratio of 23.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.68. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $280.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $261.22. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. General Dynamics has a twelve month low of $202.35 and a twelve month high of $296.50.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Investors of record on Friday, April 12th will be given a $1.42 dividend. This represents a $5.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.99%. This is an increase from General Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.32. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 11th. General Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on GD. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $291.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $301.00 to $333.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of General Dynamics from $286.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of General Dynamics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of General Dynamics from $325.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $283.47.

Insider Activity at General Dynamics

In related news, EVP Mark C. Roualet sold 73,330 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.75, for a total value of $19,414,117.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 149,205 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,502,023.75. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Mark C. Roualet sold 73,330 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.75, for a total transaction of $19,414,117.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 149,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,502,023.75. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Phebe N. Novakovic sold 32,355 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.31, for a total value of $8,551,750.05. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 773,977 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $204,569,860.87. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.