Loading…
Defense conglomerate making Abrams tanks, nuclear submarines, and Gulfstream business jets.
Defense conglomerate making Abrams tanks, nuclear submarines, and Gulfstream business jets.
Paid mainly by the US government under long multi-year contracts, so revenue follows production schedules for submarines and combat vehicles. Marine Systems builds the Navy's Virginia- and Columbia-class boats. Gulfstream is different: it sells jets to corporate and private buyers from an order backlog, which makes that unit more cyclical.
Moat: wide (scale, IP / patents, regulatory licence). Sole-source submarine builder (with Newport News) and decades-long combat-vehicle program relationships.
Headquarters: Reston, Virginia, US · Founded: 1952 · Employees: 117,000
Size General Dynamics (GD) is a United States Industrials company (Aerospace & Defense) with a market value of $95.7B, the 133rd largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $354.06 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 2.6%, against -0.6% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 10th highest of 20 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 9.7% over the last twelve months (peer median +11.6%); the operating margin is 10.4% (peer median 11.7%).
Valuation It trades at 19.4× forward earnings against a peer median of 26.8× (4th cheapest of 20).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about -2% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +7%, so the hurdle is -9 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 8.2 points above its cost of capital (6.3% WACC).
Backlog Backlog (remaining performance obligations) was $118B at 31 Dec 2025, up 30% on a year earlier — 2.2 years of trailing revenue. Backlog detail →
Credit General Dynamics has 10 bonds outstanding ($7.00B), rated A by the agencies and trading like AA at a weighted spread of 50 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 0.7% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 27 Jan 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $56.5B | $52.5B | $47.7B | $42.3B | $39.4B |
| Revenue growth | — | +10% | +13% | +7% | — |
| Gross profit | $8.72B | $7.95B | $7.36B | $6.67B | $6.62B |
| EBITDA | $6.81B | $6.28B | $5.68B | $5.11B | $5.09B |
| Net income | $4.66B | $4.21B | $3.78B | $3.31B | $3.39B |
| Free cash flow | $5.78B | $3.96B | $3.20B | $3.81B | $3.46B |
| Capital expenditure | $1.53B | $1.16B | $916M | $904M | $1.11B |
| Total debt | $9.03B | $9.79B | $10.7B | $11.1B | $12.1B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Dynamics GD | $95.7B | +3% | +10% | 10% | 19.4× | -2.5% |
| Huntington Ingalls Industries HII | $11.4B | -8% | +13% | 5% | 14.4× | 5.3% |
| RTX RTX | $256B | +8% | +12% | 11% | 24.4× | 8.4% |
| Textron TXT | $14.2B | -8% | +9% | 7% | 11.9× | 8.3% |
| BAE Systems BA..L | $72.6B | -4% | +7% | 9% | 22.0× | 2.8% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | GD | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +7.3% | +2.8% | 7th highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +2.6% | -0.6% | 10th highest of 20 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -11.5% | -21.0% | 3rd highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +9.7% | +11.6% | 10th lowest of 20 |
| Operating margin | 10.4% | 11.7% | 7th lowest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 19.4× | 26.8× | 4th cheapest of 20 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | -2.5% | 9.7% | 3rd least demanding of 18 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +6.7% | +9.4% | 5th lowest of 18 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -9.2 pp | -1.0 pp | 4th least demanding of 18 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +8.2 pp | +9.0 pp | 10th lowest of 20 |
| EV / EBITDA | 14.7× | 19.0× | 4th cheapest of 19 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 0.7× | 1.2× | 9th least indebted of 20 |
| Bond spread | 50 bp | 72 bp | tightest of 16 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Dynamics GD | United States | $95.7B | +3% | +10% | 10% | 19.4× | -2.5% | +6.7% |
| Howmet Aerospace HWM | United States | $81.8B | -24% | +22% | 28% | 32.6× | 24.1% | +9.4% |
| Northrop Grumman NOC | United States | $74.6B | -4% | +7% | 11% | 17.8× | 0.2% | +2.7% |
| BAE Systems BA..L | United Kingdom | $72.6B | -4% | +7% | 9% | 22.0× | 2.8% | +8.0% |
| Lockheed Martin LMT | United States | $131B | +12% | +8% | 12% | 17.6× | -6.9% | +2.8% |
| Boeing BA | United States | $137B | -27% | +18% | 0% | 179,875.5× | n/a | n/a |
| Safran SAF.PA | France | $138B | +4% | +14% | 13% | 28.5× | 22.2% | +13.4% |
| TransDigm TDG | United States | $66.2B | -1% | +17% | 47% | 25.5× | 9.7% | +11.6% |
| Rolls-Royce RR..L | United Kingdom | $140B | +6% | +19% | 18% | 28.5× | 24.6% | +13.0% |
| Airbus AIR.PA | France | $174B | +14% | +6% | 8% | 26.8× | 22.6% | +8.0% |
| Thales HO.PA | France | $51.1B | -1% | +7% | 11% | 20.6× | -2.8% | +7.6% |
| Honeywell Aerospace HONA | United States | $48.5B | n/a | n/a | 20% | 18.8× | n/a | n/a |
| L3Harris LHX | United States | $48.4B | -13% | +7% | 12% | 20.1× | 7.0% | +3.7% |
| Rheinmetall RHM.DE | Germany | $42.5B | -29% | -2% | 18% | 22.0× | 6.5% | +12.9% |
| HEICO HEI | United States | $39.2B | +14% | +21% | 24% | 47.8× | 24.5% | +20.2% |
| RTX RTX | United States | $256B | +8% | +12% | 11% | 24.4× | 8.4% | +9.4% |
| Hindustan Aeronautics HAL.NS | India | $35.2B | +4% | +7% | 23% | 33.6× | 42.7% | +7.2% |
| Saab SAAB-B.ST | Sweden | $33.3B | +19% | +28% | 10% | 40.2× | 6.0% | +17.4% |
| Elbit Systems ESLT | United States | $32.0B | -13% | +12% | 9% | 46.5× | 10.1% | +11.5% |
| Kongsberg Gruppen KOG.OL | Norway | $31.8B | +13% | -28% | 17% | 46.3× | 21.7% | +4.3% |
| Rocket Lab RKLB | United States | $31.8B | -50% | +53% | -29% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
General Dynamics has 10 bonds outstanding with $7.00B face value. The agencies rate it A; its bonds trade like AA. Weighted yield 5.28%, a spread of 50 bp over government bonds.
General Dynamics reported $118B of remaining performance obligations at 31 Dec 2025, up 30% from a year earlier. That is 2.2 years of trailing revenue already under contract.