Davis R M Inc. Sells 2,084 Shares of Northrop Grumman Co. (NYSE:NOC)

Davis R M Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Northrop Grumman Co. (NYSE:NOC – Get Rating) by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 53,281 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 2,084 shares during the quarter. Davis R M Inc.’s holdings in Northrop Grumman were worth $25,059,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in NOC. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Northrop Grumman by 1,197.9% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 812,239 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $382,012,000 after purchasing an additional 749,660 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Northrop Grumman by 78.5% during the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,290,934 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $617,802,000 after purchasing an additional 567,520 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Northrop Grumman by 5.5% during the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,562,706 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $3,140,714,000 after purchasing an additional 339,889 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Northrop Grumman by 473.7% during the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 346,170 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $165,666,000 after buying an additional 285,835 shares during the period. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Northrop Grumman by 118.8% during the second quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 490,882 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $234,921,000 after buying an additional 266,487 shares during the period. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Northrop Grumman from $626.00 to $601.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 27th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Northrop Grumman from $550.00 to $520.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 27th. Citigroup cut their price target on Northrop Grumman from $544.00 to $488.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 27th. Cowen lowered Northrop Grumman from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $478.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, January 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Northrop Grumman from $460.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $508.75.

Northrop Grumman Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NOC stock traded down $2.64 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $445.40. 185,820 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,418,934. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. Northrop Grumman Co. has a 1 year low of $365.25 and a 1 year high of $556.27. The stock has a market cap of $68.17 billion, a PE ratio of 14.22, a PEG ratio of 5.82 and a beta of 0.60. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $508.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $497.63.

Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 26th. The aerospace company reported $7.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.57 by $0.93. Northrop Grumman had a return on equity of 28.29% and a net margin of 13.38%. The firm had revenue of $10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $6.00 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 16.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Northrop Grumman Co. will post 21.88 EPS for the current year.

Northrop Grumman Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 28th were issued a dividend of $1.73 per share. This represents a $6.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 25th. Northrop Grumman’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.96%.

Northrop Grumman Company Profile

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Northrop Grumman Corp. engages in the provision of advanced aircraft systems. It operates through the following segments: Aeronautics Systems, Defense Systems, Mission Systems, and Space Systems. The Aeronautics Systems segment is involved in the design, development, production, integration, sustainment, and modernization of advanced aircraft systems for the U.S.