Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) Receives $152.89 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $152.89.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Woodward from $151.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Alembic Global Advisors lowered Woodward from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $148.00 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Barclays increased their target price on Woodward from $134.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Woodward from $165.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on Woodward from $136.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Woodward

In other Woodward news, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 38,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.98, for a total transaction of $5,494,626.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,833 shares in the company, valued at $1,680,049.34. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, Director John D. Cohn sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.86, for a total value of $208,290.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 20,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,850,934.66. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 38,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.98, for a total value of $5,494,626.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,833 shares in the company, valued at $1,680,049.34. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 51,200 shares of company stock worth $7,242,916 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Woodward

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in shares of Woodward by 0.9% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,004,839 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $584,691,000 after purchasing an additional 56,241 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Woodward by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,758,261 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $783,872,000 after buying an additional 37,011 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its position in Woodward by 653.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,309,248 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $223,097,000 after buying an additional 2,002,572 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Woodward by 2.0% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,279,806 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $221,985,000 after buying an additional 44,428 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC grew its position in Woodward by 6.3% during the third quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,062,665 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $132,047,000 after buying an additional 62,897 shares in the last quarter. 81.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Woodward Stock Performance

WWD opened at $145.56 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $8.78 billion, a PE ratio of 30.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 2.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $145.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $137.07. Woodward has a fifty-two week low of $91.42 and a fifty-two week high of $160.79.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 29th. The technology company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.33. The business had revenue of $786.73 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.13 million. Woodward had a return on equity of 15.26% and a net margin of 9.50%. The company’s revenue was up 27.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.49 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Woodward will post 5.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Woodward Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 20th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. This is a positive change from Woodward’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 16th. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.10%.

About Woodward

Woodward, Inc designs, manufactures, and services control solutions for the aerospace and industrial markets worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Aerospace and Industrial. The Aerospace segment provides fuel pumps, metering units, actuators, air valves, specialty valves, fuel nozzles, and thrust reverser actuation systems for turbine engines and nacelles, and flight deck controls, actuators, servocontrols, motors, and sensors for aircraft.