Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) Downgraded to “Neutral” at Alembic Global Advisors

Alembic Global Advisors downgraded shares of Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) from an overweight rating to a neutral rating in a research note released on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat reports. Alembic Global Advisors currently has $560.00 target price on the aerospace company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on NOC. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Northrop Grumman from a hold rating to a buy rating and increased their target price for the stock from $474.00 to $575.00 in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut Northrop Grumman from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and set a $477.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Northrop Grumman from $530.00 to $500.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of Northrop Grumman from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Northrop Grumman from $467.00 to $509.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $523.20.

Northrop Grumman Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of Northrop Grumman stock opened at $523.40 on Tuesday. Northrop Grumman has a 12-month low of $414.56 and a 12-month high of $523.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. The business’s 50 day moving average is $467.68 and its 200-day moving average is $462.36. The stock has a market cap of $77.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.32.

Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The aerospace company reported $6.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.93 by $0.43. The firm had revenue of $10.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.02 billion. Northrop Grumman had a net margin of 5.61% and a return on equity of 25.44%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $5.34 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Northrop Grumman will post 25.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Northrop Grumman Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be paid a $2.06 dividend. This represents a $8.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. Northrop Grumman’s dividend payout ratio is presently 57.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Northrop Grumman

In other Northrop Grumman news, VP Thomas H. Jones sold 1,389 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $477.56, for a total transaction of $663,330.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 6,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,225,917.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, VP Thomas H. Jones sold 1,389 shares of Northrop Grumman stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $477.56, for a total value of $663,330.84. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 6,755 shares in the company, valued at $3,225,917.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Thomas H. Jones sold 1,390 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $500.00, for a total value of $695,000.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 4,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,317,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.22% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Northrop Grumman

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Northrop Grumman by 960.0% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 53 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Northrop Grumman in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Optimum Investment Advisors lifted its position in shares of Northrop Grumman by 241.2% in the 2nd quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 58 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Northrop Grumman during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Bank & Trust Co purchased a new position in Northrop Grumman during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Institutional investors own 83.40% of the company’s stock.

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.