New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Decreases Holdings in Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board trimmed its position in shares of Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) by 1.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,422 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in Northrop Grumman were worth $3,288,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Northrop Grumman by 176.3% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 2,970 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,394,000 after acquiring an additional 1,895 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG grew its stake in Northrop Grumman by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 1,006 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $472,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Northrop Grumman in the 4th quarter worth about $201,000. Amundi grew its stake in Northrop Grumman by 151.8% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 63,089 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $29,160,000 after acquiring an additional 38,034 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its stake in Northrop Grumman by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 18,108 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $8,498,000 after acquiring an additional 1,114 shares in the last quarter. 83.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NOC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Northrop Grumman from $600.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $542.00 price objective (down from $580.00) on shares of Northrop Grumman in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Northrop Grumman from $580.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on shares of Northrop Grumman from $557.00 to $540.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $525.00 target price on shares of Northrop Grumman and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $550.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Robert J. Fleming sold 3,500 shares of Northrop Grumman stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $505.77, for a total value of $1,770,195.00. Following the sale, the vice president owned 1,827 shares in the company, valued at $924,041.79. This trade represents a 65.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Thomas H. Jones sold 729 shares of Northrop Grumman stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $505.77, for a total transaction of $368,706.33. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 7,552 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,819,575.04. This trade represents a 8.80% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 16,569 shares of company stock valued at $8,323,150 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.23% of the company’s stock.

Northrop Grumman Stock Up 0.6%

NYSE:NOC opened at $507.71 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $73.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.04, a PEG ratio of 5.52 and a beta of 0.15. Northrop Grumman Corporation has a 1-year low of $422.69 and a 1-year high of $555.57. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $488.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $484.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The aerospace company reported $6.06 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $6.33 by ($0.27). Northrop Grumman had a net margin of 9.19% and a return on equity of 25.46%. The firm had revenue of $9.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.07 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Northrop Grumman Corporation will post 28.05 EPS for the current year.

Northrop Grumman Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd were given a dividend of $2.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 2nd. This is a boost from Northrop Grumman’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.06. This represents a $9.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.82%. Northrop Grumman’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.46%.

Northrop Grumman Profile

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.