Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD. Purchases 72 Shares of Northrop Grumman Co. (NYSE:NOC)

Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD. grew its holdings in shares of Northrop Grumman Co. (NYSE:NOC) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,941 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the quarter. Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD.’s holdings in Northrop Grumman were worth $2,319,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in NOC. Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. grew its position in shares of Northrop Grumman by 19.9% during the 4th quarter. Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. now owns 16,660 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $7,818,000 after acquiring an additional 2,770 shares during the period. Trinity Street Asset Management LLP lifted its position in Northrop Grumman by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Trinity Street Asset Management LLP now owns 48,367 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $22,698,000 after purchasing an additional 1,786 shares in the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its holdings in Northrop Grumman by 12.8% during the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 8,857 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $4,132,000 after purchasing an additional 1,008 shares during the period. RFG Bristol Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Northrop Grumman in the fourth quarter worth about $284,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Northrop Grumman by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,025,263 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,417,850,000 after buying an additional 21,903 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on NOC. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Northrop Grumman from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $500.00 to $575.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Northrop Grumman from $545.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Northrop Grumman from $550.00 to $500.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup raised their price target on Northrop Grumman from $587.00 to $591.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Susquehanna dropped their price objective on Northrop Grumman from $625.00 to $557.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $548.88.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Northrop Grumman news, VP Benjamin R. Davies sold 464 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.75, for a total value of $213,788.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 245 shares in the company, valued at $112,883.75. This represents a 65.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kathy J. Warden sold 3,750 shares of Northrop Grumman stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $475.65, for a total transaction of $1,783,687.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 212,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $101,243,053.80. This represents a 1.73 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 4,505 shares of company stock worth $2,127,182 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.23% of the company’s stock.

Northrop Grumman Price Performance

Northrop Grumman stock opened at $539.96 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96. Northrop Grumman Co. has a 12-month low of $418.60 and a 12-month high of $555.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $77.83 billion, a PE ratio of 19.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.73 and a beta of 0.20. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $487.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $492.17.

Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The aerospace company reported $6.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.27 by $0.12. Northrop Grumman had a return on equity of 26.24% and a net margin of 10.17%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Northrop Grumman Co. will post 28.05 EPS for the current year.

Northrop Grumman Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $2.06 dividend. This represents a $8.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Northrop Grumman’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.08%.

About Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman Corporation operates as an aerospace and defense technology company in the United States, Asia/Pacific, Europe, and internationally. The company’s Aeronautics Systems segment designs, develops, manufactures, integrates, and sustains aircraft systems. This segment also offers unmanned autonomous aircraft systems, including high-altitude long-endurance strategic ISR systems and vertical take-off and landing tactical ISR systems; and strategic long-range strike aircraft, tactical fighter and air dominance aircraft, and airborne battle management and command and control systems.