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

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

General Dynamics Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:GD traded up $2.23 during trading on Thursday, reaching $283.34. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 577,888 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,097,643. 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 12 month low of $202.35 and a 12 month high of $296.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $77.74 billion, a PE ratio of 23.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.68. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $280.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $261.22.

General Dynamics Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 12th will be given a dividend of $1.42 per share. This is a positive change from General Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.32. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 11th. This represents a $5.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.00%. General Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on GD. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of General Dynamics from $253.00 to $284.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of General Dynamics from $325.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of General Dynamics from $291.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of General Dynamics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $283.47.

Insider Activity at General Dynamics

In other news, EVP Mark C. Roualet sold 73,330 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 149,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,502,023.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other General Dynamics news, EVP Mark C. Roualet sold 73,330 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.75, for a total value of $19,414,117.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 149,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,502,023.75. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Phebe N. Novakovic sold 32,355 shares of the business’s 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 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 owned by company insiders.

About General Dynamics

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.