Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $174.67.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on WWD shares. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $170.00 to $190.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. StockNews.com upgraded Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and set a $160.00 target price (down from $186.00) on shares of Woodward in a report on Friday, October 4th. Truist Financial upgraded Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $152.00 to $187.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Woodward from $228.00 to $201.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 31st.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Woodward by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,835,915 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $899,431,000 after buying an additional 77,654 shares in the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC increased its position in Woodward by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,380,384 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $240,711,000 after buying an additional 34,946 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. increased its position in Woodward by 13.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 634,698 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $110,679,000 after buying an additional 74,734 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Woodward by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 541,496 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $94,426,000 after buying an additional 16,083 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in Woodward by 94.2% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 434,385 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $75,735,000 after buying an additional 210,746 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Woodward Price Performance

Shares of Woodward stock opened at $164.04 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.99 billion, a PE ratio of 28.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.37. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $164.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $168.62. Woodward has a 12 month low of $119.03 and a 12 month high of $188.35.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The technology company reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $847.69 million during 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%. Woodward’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.37 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Woodward will post 5.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Woodward Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Woodward’s payout ratio is presently 17.48%.

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.