Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) Price Target Raised to $201.00 at The Goldman Sachs Group

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) had its price objective increased by The Goldman Sachs Group from $159.00 to $201.00 in a report issued on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on WWD. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Woodward from $136.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. StockNews.com lowered Woodward from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Woodward from $165.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Alembic Global Advisors lowered Woodward from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and set a $148.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Woodward from $168.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $158.22.

Woodward Price Performance

Shares of WWD stock opened at $147.49 on Tuesday. Woodward has a fifty-two week low of $91.42 and a fifty-two week high of $160.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.12, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 2.65. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $146.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $137.55.

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

Woodward Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 20th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 16th. This is a positive change from Woodward’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.10%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Woodward news, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 38,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.98, for a total value of $5,494,626.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 11,833 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,680,049.34. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director John D. Cohn sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.86, for a total transaction of $208,290.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 20,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,850,934.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 38,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.98, for a total value of $5,494,626.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,680,049.34. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 51,200 shares of company stock worth $7,242,916. Corporate insiders own 1.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Woodward during the 1st quarter worth approximately $295,000. State of Michigan Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Woodward by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 14,810 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,283,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Woodward during the 1st quarter worth approximately $698,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Woodward in the 1st quarter valued at $332,000. Finally, Toth Financial Advisory Corp raised its stake in Woodward by 99.1% in the 1st quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 4,400 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $678,000 after purchasing an additional 2,190 shares during the last quarter. 81.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.