We recently published a list of 13 Best Defense Stocks to Buy According to Billionaires. In this article, we are going to take a look at where General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) stands against other best defense stocks to buy according to billionaires.
Defense stocks wobbled over the past week after a contentious meeting at the Oval Office between President Trump and the visiting Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky as investors hoped for the US-Ukraine minerals deal to be signed.
The sector has struggled since Trump’s return to the White House, amid mixed statements on military expenditure throughout his campaign and the early days of his second stint. Shares fell sharply on February 13 after the President hinted at cutting defense spending in the future. The creation of DOGE is also reshaping investors’ views of the industry.
READ ALSO: 10 Best Large Cap Defense Stocks to Buy Now and Why These 15 Defense Stocks Are Skyrocketing So Far In 2025.
In contrast, European defense stocks have rallied this year as governments faced pressures to increase military expenditure. Several stocks registered double-digit growth during the week of March 3, with some even reaching record highs. Investor sentiment picked up after the European Summit in London, where leaders from the EU and NATO met to express their support for Ukraine, following the recent Zelensky-Trump spat.
Washington has repeatedly called for European countries to spend more on defense, while stressing that the US could no longer foot the bill. EU leaders met in Brussels this Thursday to discuss the ‘ReArm Europe Plan’, which will allow the bloc to mobilize funds up to $860 million through bonds and relaxed rules on borrowing and spending.
European countries are also ramping up defense on an individual-level. A conservative victory in Germany, signaling the shift to the right in Berlin, is also adding to the momentum. According to a Reuters report, parties in talks to form the nation’s next government are already considering setting up a defense fund. Friedrich Merz, Germany’s next chancellor-in-waiting, has also vowed to relax the country’s strict borrowing rules.
Peter Schaffrik, Global Macro Strategist, at RBC Capital Markets stated the following on the ongoing situation:
It is an inflection point and Europe realises it needs to do the heavy lifting. The German elections have opened the door for more spending. The whole Zelensky-Trump meltdown has fast forwarded everything.
Methodology
For this article, we scanned Insider Monkey’s Q4 2024 proprietary database of billionaires’ stock holdings and identified defense stocks from the list. From there, we picked the top 13 stocks with the highest number of billionaires having a stake in them. Where two or more stocks were tied on billionaire sentiment, we used the dollar value of billionaire holdings as a tiebreaker between them.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
An aircraft maintenance team in a hanger working on a modern business jet.
General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD)
Number of Billionaires: 11
Billionaire Holdings: $602,368,559
General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) is a leading global aerospace and defense company, operating through its Aerospace, Marine Systems, Combat Systems, and Technologies segments. It is among the best defense stocks to buy according to billionaires.
On January 29, the company announced strong results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024, with revenue and earnings growth across segments. It reported a revenue of $13.3 billion, representing a 14.3% increase from last year. Net income stood at $1.1 billion, up 14.2% year-over-year. Diluted EPS was logged at $4.15, growing 14% from the prior year’s quarter.
The turbulent situation in Ukraine and the Middle East fueled demand for weapons during the quarter, as several countries increased military expenditure to secure their borders. General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD)’s three defense segments – Marine Systems, Combat Systems, and Technologies recorded revenue growth of 16.2%, 1.3%, and 2.8%, respectively.
General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) returned $3 billion to shareholders in fiscal 2024 through share repurchases and dividends. On March 5, the company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share to be paid to all shareholders on record on April 11. This is a 5.6% increase over last year’s dividend and marks the 28th successive annual dividend increase authorized by GD.
General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) is a popular stock among billionaires. According to Insider Monkey, 11 billionaires had investments in the company as of Q4 2024, with a combined stake value of over $602 million. It is one of the best defense stocks to buy, with a consensus Buy rating from Wall Street analysts.
Overall, GD ranks 10th on our list of best defense stocks to buy according to billionaires. While we acknowledge the potential of GD as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than GD but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.