General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD) Shares Sold by Manchester Financial Inc.

Manchester Financial Inc. lowered its stake in shares of General Dynamics Co. (NYSE:GD) by 13.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,313 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 199 shares during the quarter. Manchester Financial Inc.’s holdings in General Dynamics were worth $346,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in General Dynamics by 241.7% during the third quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 82 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Financial Life Planners acquired a new position in shares of General Dynamics in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Hara Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of General Dynamics during the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in General Dynamics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in General Dynamics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. 86.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on GD. Vertical Research downgraded shares of General Dynamics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $352.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of General Dynamics from $315.00 to $295.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on General Dynamics from $279.00 to $276.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on General Dynamics from $307.00 to $284.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on General Dynamics from $303.00 to $295.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, General Dynamics presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $298.59.

Insider Activity at General Dynamics

In other General Dynamics news, Director Laura J. Schumacher sold 1,796 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.68, for a total transaction of $459,201.28. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 11,175 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,857,224. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Christopher J. Brady sold 5,540 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.91, for a total transaction of $1,556,241.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 20,296 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,701,349.36. The trade was a 21.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.52% of the company’s stock.

General Dynamics Trading Down 2.1 %

NYSE GD opened at $246.14 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $263.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $284.85. The company has a market capitalization of $67.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 0.61. General Dynamics Co. has a 12 month low of $242.86 and a 12 month high of $316.90. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 17.10% and a net margin of 7.93%. As a group, research analysts predict that General Dynamics Co. will post 14.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Dynamics Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 17th were issued a $1.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 17th. This represents a $5.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.31%. General Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.64%.

General Dynamics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, December 4th that authorizes the company to repurchase 10,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the aerospace company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.