Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) Price Target Raised to $229.00 at Truist Financial

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) had its target price boosted by Truist Financial from $226.00 to $229.00 in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the technology company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on WWD. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Woodward from $197.00 to $193.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays lifted their price target on Woodward from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Woodward from $209.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target 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. Five investment 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, Woodward has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $190.11.

Woodward Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WWD opened at $184.10 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $175.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $169.32. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The stock has a market cap of $10.89 billion, a PE ratio of 30.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.39. Woodward has a fifty-two week low of $133.56 and a fifty-two week high of $201.64.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 25th. The technology company reported $1.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.19. Woodward had a net margin of 11.22% and a return on equity of 17.13%. The company had revenue of $855.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $810.39 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Woodward will post 5.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Woodward Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.64%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.50, for a total transaction of $1,745,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,511 shares in the company, valued at $2,008,669.50. This represents a 46.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John D. Cohn sold 2,400 shares of the business’s 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 owns 20,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,764,325.91. The trade was a 10.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 60,313 shares of company stock valued at $10,752,072 in the last quarter. 0.82% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in WWD. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 570,124 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in Woodward during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,547,000. PEAK6 Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Woodward during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,448,000. Citigroup Inc. raised its holdings in Woodward by 12.1% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 64,153 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $11,003,000 after buying an additional 6,917 shares during the period. Finally, Ingalls & Snyder LLC acquired a new position in Woodward during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,698,000. 81.18% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.