Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.28 Per Share

Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, February 3rd,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of 0.28 per share by the technology company on Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. This is an increase from Woodward’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25.

Woodward has raised its dividend payment by an average of 15.4% annually over the last three years. Woodward has a dividend payout ratio of 13.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Woodward to earn $7.09 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 14.1%.

Woodward Trading Up 1.4 %

WWD traded up $2.65 during trading on Monday, reaching $187.90. 1,083,374 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 441,458. Woodward has a one year low of $133.56 and a one year high of $201.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.11 billion, a PE ratio of 31.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.40. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $178.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $170.42.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 25th. The technology company reported $1.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.19. Woodward had a net margin of 11.22% and a return on equity of 17.13%. The firm had revenue of $855.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $810.39 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.33 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Woodward will post 6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Woodward from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Woodward from $197.00 to $193.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Woodward from $209.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Woodward from $226.00 to $229.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Woodward currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $195.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director John D. Cohn sold 2,400 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $179.57, for a total value of $430,968.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 20,963 shares in the company, valued at $3,764,325.91. This represents a 10.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 11,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,008,669.50. This represents a 46.49 % decrease in their position. 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 over the last ninety days. 0.82% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.