New York State Teachers Retirement System Lowers Stake in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD)

New York State Teachers Retirement System lowered its stake in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) by 10.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 65,284 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 7,700 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.11% of Woodward worth $11,384,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of WWD. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Woodward in the 4th quarter worth $84,157,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Woodward by 743.5% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 223,639 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $34,452,000 after acquiring an additional 197,125 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Woodward by 12.3% during the first quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,345,438 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $207,359,000 after purchasing an additional 147,856 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in shares of Woodward by 37.6% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 524,683 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $71,425,000 after purchasing an additional 143,410 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Woodward by 1.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,835,915 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $899,431,000 after purchasing an additional 77,654 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WWD has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Woodward from $140.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 6th. StockNews.com lowered Woodward from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Truist Financial raised Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $152.00 to $187.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Woodward from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $197.00 to $158.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Woodward from $200.00 to $186.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $177.11.

Woodward Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WWD traded up $3.38 on Friday, reaching $162.52. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 435,537 shares, compared to its average volume of 613,144. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $169.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $162.36. Woodward, Inc. has a 52-week low of $119.03 and a 52-week high of $188.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.96. The company has a market cap of $9.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.41, a PEG ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 1.37.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The technology company reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $847.69 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $853.29 million. Woodward had a return on equity of 17.16% and a net margin of 11.47%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.37 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Woodward, Inc. will post 5.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Woodward Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 22nd. Woodward’s payout ratio is 17.48%.

Woodward 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.