− Management's stated priorities — reinvestment first, then a predictable dividend, then strategic acquisitions, with buybacks used opportunistically and primarily to offset dilution — are visible in the numbers and signal disciplined confidence rather than financial engineering. The dividend was raised again in FY2025, extending a long, unbroken streak of annual increases, with the payout ratio (37

− | EBITDA | 7.2% | 4.6% | -% |

− | FCF | 4.5% | 6.5% | -% |

− | **Z-Score** | **2.57** | **2.71** | **2.95** |

− | Zone | Gray | Gray | Gray (upper boundary) |

− **Interpretation — a "gray-zone" score that understates a genuinely investment-grade credit, but trending the right way.** The Altman Z-Score reads 2.95 in FY2025, up steadily from 2.57 in FY2023 and 2.71 in FY2024, and by the model's thresholds sits in the "gray" zone, just below the 2.99 "safe" boundary. Two points keep this from being a credit warning. First, the *direction* is unambiguously im

− | EV/EBITDA | 17.6xᵐ | 16.3xᵐ | 15.0xᵐ | 23.7xᵐʳ | 18.9xᵐ | 14.9xᵐ |

− **The raw multiple gap overstates how cheap GD is, and the honest read requires the caveats attached.** At 17.6x EV/EBITDA GD sits mid-pack — above the cheapest names, HII (14.9x) and NOC (15.0x), and below RTX (23.7x) and LHX (18.9x). But RTX's premium is a commercial-aerospace-recovery multiple, not a defense multiple, so the apparent discount to it is not a defense-peer discount at all; strip R

− Against its own history the signal is clearer than against peers: GD's current 17.6x is above its FY2021–FY2025 period-end range of 13.6x–15.5x — the stock has re-rated since year-end on the rearmament theme. The disciplined conclusion for the price target in Section 6: **GD is not demonstrably cheap versus its peer group once RTX's commercial mix and the pension-geography distortions are neutrali

− | EV/EBITDA | 17.6x | 15.0x | $327.17 |

− For a defense prime, EV/EBITDA is the most relevant single multiple because it is capital-structure-neutral and, once each peer's pension geography is neutralized (Section 5.7), the cleanest cross-peer read. All three targets are set below where GD trades today but above its pre-re-rating history — the through-cycle discipline the case requires. The P/E target of 20.0x sits below the current 25.0x