CWA Asset Management Group LLC Takes Position in Northrop Grumman Co. (NYSE:NOC)

CWA Asset Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Northrop Grumman Co. (NYSE:NOC) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 664 shares of the aerospace company’s stock, valued at approximately $351,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Headlands Technologies LLC raised its position in shares of Northrop Grumman by 150.0% during the 1st quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 135 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Northrop Grumman during the 1st quarter worth approximately $304,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System raised its position in shares of Northrop Grumman by 9.8% during the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 160,328 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $74,027,000 after purchasing an additional 14,275 shares during the last quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. raised its position in shares of Northrop Grumman by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. now owns 1,610 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $771,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Souders Financial Advisors raised its position in shares of Northrop Grumman by 14.0% during the 1st quarter. Souders Financial Advisors now owns 920 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $440,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. 83.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NOC has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Northrop Grumman from $500.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Alembic Global Advisors downgraded Northrop Grumman from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $560.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Northrop Grumman from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $474.00 to $575.00 in a report on Monday, July 29th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on Northrop Grumman from $560.00 to $625.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Northrop Grumman from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Northrop Grumman currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $550.56.

Northrop Grumman Stock Performance

NYSE:NOC opened at $531.38 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $523.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $485.43. The stock has a market cap of $77.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.92, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.35. Northrop Grumman Co. has a 1-year low of $418.60 and a 1-year high of $555.57.

Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The aerospace company reported $7.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.07 by $0.93. The company had revenue of $10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.18 billion. Northrop Grumman had a net margin of 5.79% and a return on equity of 26.57%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $6.18 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Northrop Grumman Co. will post 25.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Northrop Grumman Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were paid a $2.06 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $8.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. Northrop Grumman’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.05%.

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.