Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) Lifted to “Overweight” at Alembic Global Advisors

Alembic Global Advisors upgraded shares of Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD – Get Rating) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research note released on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $127.00 target price on the technology company’s stock, up from their previous target price of $111.00.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Woodward from $88.00 to $93.00 in a report on Monday, January 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Woodward from $76.00 to $74.00 in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Woodward from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, November 29th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Woodward from an outperform rating to a peer perform rating in a report on Tuesday, November 22nd. Finally, TheStreet lowered shares of Woodward from a b- rating to a c rating in a report on Monday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $105.56.

Woodward Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WWD opened at $103.84 on Wednesday. Woodward has a 12-month low of $79.26 and a 12-month high of $129.12. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.20 billion, a PE ratio of 37.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.47. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $99.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $95.62.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 30th. The technology company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.60 by ($0.11). Woodward had a return on equity of 8.57% and a net margin of 6.95%. The business had revenue of $619.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $599.88 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Woodward will post 3.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Woodward Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a boost from Woodward’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 17th. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio is 27.64%.

Insider Activity

In other Woodward news, Director Ronald M. Sega sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.00, for a total value of $208,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,423,656. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Woodward

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of Woodward by 15.4% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,749,193 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $718,131,000 after purchasing an additional 768,984 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Woodward by 41.1% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,134,296 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $266,595,000 after purchasing an additional 621,559 shares in the last quarter. Eaton Vance Management boosted its position in shares of Woodward by 63.4% during the first quarter. Eaton Vance Management now owns 580,570 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $72,519,000 after purchasing an additional 225,198 shares in the last quarter. Rezny Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Woodward by 2,300.0% during the second quarter. Rezny Wealth Management Inc. now owns 168,912 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $16,049,000 after purchasing an additional 161,874 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Loomis Sayles & Co. L P bought a new position in shares of Woodward during the first quarter worth $19,986,000. 81.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Woodward

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Woodward, Inc engages in the provision of control system solutions and components for the aerospace and industrial markets. It operates through the following segments: Aerospace and Industrial. The Aerospace segment designs, manufactures and services systems and products for the management of fuel, air and combustion and motion control.