Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $189.78.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on WWD shares. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $226.00 target price (up previously from $187.00) on shares of Woodward in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective (down from $186.00) on shares of Woodward in a report on Friday, October 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Woodward from $158.00 to $162.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Woodward from $209.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Woodward from $197.00 to $193.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday.

Woodward Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of WWD stock opened at $182.11 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Woodward has a twelve month low of $131.69 and a twelve month high of $201.64. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $174.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $169.35. The stock has a market cap of $10.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.30, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.39.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 25th. The technology company reported $1.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $855.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $810.39 million. Woodward had a net margin of 11.22% and a return on equity of 17.13%. Woodward’s revenue was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.33 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Woodward will post 5.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Woodward Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.64%.

Insider Transactions at Woodward

In related news, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 10,000 shares of Woodward stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.65, for a total value of $1,776,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 11,511 shares in the company, valued at $2,044,929.15. The trade was a 46.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John D. Cohn sold 2,400 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $179.57, for a total transaction of $430,968.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 20,963 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,764,325.91. This represents a 10.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 60,313 shares of company stock valued at $10,752,072. 0.82% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Woodward

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Woodward by 135.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 992,189 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $170,170,000 after buying an additional 570,124 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of Woodward during the third quarter worth about $2,547,000. PEAK6 Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Woodward in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,448,000. Citigroup Inc. boosted its position in shares of Woodward by 12.1% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 64,153 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $11,003,000 after purchasing an additional 6,917 shares during the period. Finally, Ingalls & Snyder LLC purchased a new position in Woodward during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,698,000. 81.18% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.