Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) Lifted to Buy at StockNews.com

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Thursday.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Truist Financial upgraded Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $152.00 to $187.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $160.00 price target (down from $186.00) on shares of Woodward in a research note on Friday, October 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Woodward from $228.00 to $201.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $170.00 to $190.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Woodward from $158.00 to $162.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.67.

Woodward Stock Performance

Shares of WWD stock opened at $164.04 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.96. Woodward has a one year low of $119.03 and a one year high of $188.35. The company’s 50-day moving average is $164.64 and its 200 day moving average is $168.62.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The technology company reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. Woodward had a net margin of 11.47% and a return on equity of 17.16%. The company had revenue of $847.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $853.29 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.37 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Woodward will post 5.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Woodward

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position in Woodward by 94.2% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 434,385 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $75,735,000 after purchasing an additional 210,746 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Woodward by 12.3% during the first quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,345,438 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $207,359,000 after purchasing an additional 147,856 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Woodward by 1.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,835,915 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $899,431,000 after purchasing an additional 77,654 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Woodward by 17,072.3% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 76,760 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $13,165,000 after purchasing an additional 76,313 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its holdings in shares of Woodward by 13.3% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 634,698 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $110,679,000 after purchasing an additional 74,734 shares during the last quarter. 81.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.