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General Dynamics (GD) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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General Dynamics (GD - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $205.33, moving +0.56% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.99%.

Coming into today, shares of the defense contractor had lost 2.78% in the past month. In that same time, the Aerospace sector lost 4.83%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.42%.

General Dynamics will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect General Dynamics to post earnings of $2.63 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 4.36%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $9.45 billion, up 2.84% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $12.66 per share and revenue of $41.37 billion, which would represent changes of +3.86% and +4.98%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for General Dynamics. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.29% lower within the past month. General Dynamics is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that General Dynamics has a Forward P/E ratio of 16.12 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 15.3.

Meanwhile, GD's PEG ratio is currently 1.8. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Aerospace - Defense industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.7 as of yesterday's close.

The Aerospace - Defense industry is part of the Aerospace sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 108, which puts it in the top 43% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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