Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) Upgraded at StockNews.com

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) was upgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on WWD. UBS Group boosted their price target on Woodward from $216.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Woodward from $193.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Barclays raised their price target on Woodward from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Woodward from $226.00 to $229.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $197.38.

Woodward Trading Down 1.8 %

WWD traded down $3.40 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $184.50. The company had a trading volume of 1,181,663 shares, compared to its average volume of 475,271. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $179.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $170.55. The stock has a market cap of $10.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.70, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.40. Woodward has a 52 week low of $133.56 and a 52 week high of $201.64.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 3rd. The technology company reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.21. Woodward had a net margin of 11.22% and a return on equity of 17.13%. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.45 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Woodward will post 6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Woodward

In related news, Director John D. Cohn sold 2,400 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director now directly owns 20,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,764,325.91. This represents a 10.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.65, for a total transaction of $1,776,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 11,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,044,929.15. This represents a 46.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 60,313 shares of company stock worth $10,752,072 over the last 90 days. 0.82% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Woodward

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WWD. Naya Capital Management UK Ltd. acquired a new stake in Woodward in the 3rd quarter valued at about $99,000,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Woodward by 135.1% in 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 period. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT acquired a new stake in Woodward during the fourth quarter worth $20,045,000. State Street Corp raised its position in Woodward by 4.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,421,483 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $415,309,000 after purchasing an additional 110,569 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Woodward by 17,072.3% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 76,760 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $13,165,000 after purchasing an additional 76,313 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

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.