Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) Price Target Raised to $172.00

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) had its target price raised by investment analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $156.00 to $172.00 in a report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the technology company’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 3.70% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on WWD. StockNews.com cut shares of Woodward from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Woodward from $134.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Woodward from $168.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Woodward from $143.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Alembic Global Advisors downgraded shares of Woodward from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $148.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $163.89.

Woodward Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of Woodward stock opened at $165.86 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $10.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.00, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $148.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $138.91. The company has a current ratio of 2.65, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Woodward has a 12-month low of $105.18 and a 12-month high of $169.99.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The technology company reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.34. The firm had revenue of $835.34 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $807.04 million. Woodward had a net margin of 11.09% and a return on equity of 16.92%. Woodward’s quarterly revenue was up 16.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.01 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Woodward will post 5.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Woodward news, Director John D. Cohn sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.86, for a total transaction of $208,290.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 20,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,850,934.66. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Woodward news, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 38,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.98, for a total transaction of $5,494,626.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,833 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,680,049.34. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John D. Cohn sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.86, for a total transaction of $208,290.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 20,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,850,934.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 51,200 shares of company stock worth $7,242,916 in the last 90 days. 1.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Woodward

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Woodward by 79.3% in the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Woodward during the third quarter worth approximately $32,000. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in Woodward during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new stake in Woodward during the first quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new stake in Woodward during the fourth quarter worth approximately $44,000. 81.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.