Brokerages Set Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) Price Target at $195.00

Shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the eight ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $195.00.

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Woodward from $175.00 to $193.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Woodward from $205.00 to $209.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Woodward from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $187.00 target price on shares of Woodward and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th.

Insider Transactions at Woodward

In other Woodward news, Director John D. Cohn sold 2,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.52, for a total value of $536,256.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 20,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,015,216.80. The trade was a 11.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Gregg C. Sengstack sold 4,600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.86, for a total transaction of $864,156.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 17,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,157. The trade was a 20.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 30,700 shares of company stock valued at $5,751,700. Company insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WWD. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in Woodward by 51.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 42,189 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,236,000 after acquiring an additional 14,326 shares in the last quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Woodward during the 4th quarter valued at $1,275,000. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Woodward by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,413 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $402,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its stake in Woodward by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 1,790 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $298,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC increased its position in Woodward by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 7,690 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,280,000 after buying an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Woodward Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WWD opened at $209.79 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Woodward has a 12 month low of $145.98 and a 12 month high of $210.00. The company has a market capitalization of $12.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.14, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $182.45 and its 200 day moving average is $180.74.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The technology company reported $1.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.25. Woodward had a return on equity of 16.76% and a net margin of 11.18%. The business had revenue of $883.63 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $838.61 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.62 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Woodward will post 6.15 EPS for the current year.

Woodward Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 22nd will be issued a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 22nd. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.09%.

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.