Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT Takes $20.05 Million Position in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD)

Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT bought a new stake in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 120,446 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,045,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ieq Capital LLC increased its stake in Woodward by 665.8% during the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 21,357 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,554,000 after purchasing an additional 18,568 shares in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Woodward by 94.2% in the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 371 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $62,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the period. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Woodward during the fourth quarter worth about $465,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Woodward by 70.2% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 417 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 172 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Woodward by 262.1% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 7,018 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,168,000 after acquiring an additional 5,080 shares in the last quarter. 81.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Woodward news, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 10,000 shares of Woodward stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.99, for a total transaction of $1,799,900.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,071,864.89. The trade was a 46.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John D. Cohn sold 2,400 shares of Woodward stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $179.57, for a total value of $430,968.00. Following 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 32,400 shares of company stock valued at $5,844,768 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WWD has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Woodward from $216.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Truist Financial lifted their price target 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. Barclays raised their target price on Woodward from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. StockNews.com cut Woodward from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Woodward from $193.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Woodward has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $197.38.

Woodward Stock Performance

NASDAQ WWD opened at $189.99 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.89. Woodward, Inc. has a 52-week low of $136.25 and a 52-week high of $201.64. The company has a fifty day moving average of $181.75 and a 200-day moving average of $172.28.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 3rd. The technology company reported $1.35 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.21. Woodward had a return on equity of 16.76% and a net margin of 11.18%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.45 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Woodward, Inc. will post 6.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Woodward Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.59%. This is an increase from Woodward’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Woodward’s payout ratio is currently 16.75%.

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.