Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) Director Sells $2,105,320.00 in Stock

Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) Director Gregg Sengstack sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.76, for a total value of $2,105,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 9,610 shares in the company, valued at $2,890,303.60. This represents a 42.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Woodward Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WWD traded up $1.66 on Friday, reaching $303.30. 170,505 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 524,753. The firm has a market cap of $18.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $264.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $249.91. Woodward, Inc. has a 52 week low of $146.82 and a 52 week high of $304.72.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 24th. The technology company reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $995.26 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $943.15 million. Woodward had a net margin of 12.39% and a return on equity of 17.68%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.41 earnings per share. Woodward has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.500-8.000 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Woodward, Inc. will post 6.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Woodward Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th were issued a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 20th. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.58%.

Woodward declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, November 20th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.80 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to repurchase up to 11.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Woodward

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Woodward by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,388,758 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $603,663,000 after buying an additional 80,538 shares in the last quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC increased its stake in Woodward by 2.3% in the first quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC now owns 2,193,238 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $400,244,000 after acquiring an additional 49,481 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC raised its position in Woodward by 0.6% during the third quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,403,551 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $354,691,000 after purchasing an additional 8,307 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Woodward by 5.0% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,092,257 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $199,326,000 after purchasing an additional 51,873 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Woodward by 122.0% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 905,578 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $228,849,000 after purchasing an additional 497,722 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on WWD. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Woodward from $294.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $350.00 price target on shares of Woodward in a research report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Woodward in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wolfe Research set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Woodward and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Woodward from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 28th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $286.67.

Woodward Company Profile

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.