Banco Santander S.A. Buys Shares of 13,615 Northrop Grumman Co. (NYSE:NOC)

Banco Santander S.A. purchased a new position in Northrop Grumman Co. (NYSE:NOC) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 13,615 shares of the aerospace company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,190,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in Northrop Grumman by 1,915.9% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 438,521 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $191,173,000 after buying an additional 416,768 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Northrop Grumman during the second quarter valued at about $90,177,000. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in Northrop Grumman during the second quarter worth about $74,206,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its stake in Northrop Grumman by 113.6% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 296,844 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $129,409,000 after purchasing an additional 157,854 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of Northrop Grumman by 16.0% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,087,913 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $474,276,000 after purchasing an additional 150,367 shares in the last quarter. 83.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Northrop Grumman news, VP Benjamin R. Davies sold 1,156 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $532.93, for a total transaction of $616,067.08. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $286,183.41. This represents a 68.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,289 shares of company stock worth $685,273. 0.22% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Northrop Grumman Price Performance

NYSE NOC opened at $496.41 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $72.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.76, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.35. Northrop Grumman Co. has a 12 month low of $418.60 and a 12 month high of $555.57. The company’s 50 day moving average is $521.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $486.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00.

Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The aerospace company reported $7.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.07 by $0.93. Northrop Grumman had a return on equity of 26.57% and a net margin of 5.79%. The business had revenue of $10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $6.18 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Northrop Grumman Co. will post 25.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Northrop Grumman Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $2.06 dividend. This represents a $8.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. Northrop Grumman’s payout ratio is 51.05%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NOC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Northrop Grumman from $500.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Northrop Grumman from $521.00 to $587.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Northrop Grumman to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Northrop Grumman from $614.00 to $643.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Northrop Grumman from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $550.56.

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.