1,273 Shares in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) Purchased by Wealthstream Advisors Inc.

Wealthstream Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,273 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Naya Capital Management UK Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Woodward during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $99,000,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Woodward by 135.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 992,189 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $170,170,000 after buying an additional 570,124 shares in the last quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT acquired a new stake in Woodward during the fourth quarter valued at $20,045,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Woodward by 4.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,421,483 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $415,309,000 after buying an additional 110,569 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Woodward by 17,072.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 76,760 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $13,165,000 after acquiring an additional 76,313 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 10,000 shares of Woodward stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.85, for a total transaction of $1,818,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 11,511 shares in the company, valued at $2,093,275.35. The trade was a 46.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John D. Cohn sold 2,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,764,325.91. This represents a 10.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 32,400 shares of company stock valued at $5,844,768 in the last ninety days. 0.82% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on WWD shares. Truist Financial raised their target price on Woodward from $226.00 to $229.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Woodward from $193.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com cut Woodward from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Barclays increased their target price on Woodward from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Woodward from $216.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $197.38.

Woodward Stock Down 2.8 %

Shares of WWD opened at $184.74 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $181.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $172.77. Woodward, Inc. has a one year low of $136.25 and a one year high of $201.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.94, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.40.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The technology company reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.21. Woodward had a net margin of 11.18% and a return on equity of 16.76%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.45 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Woodward, Inc. will post 6.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Woodward Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.61%. This is a positive change from Woodward’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.76%.

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.