Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) Price Target to $193.00

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) had its price objective lowered by Wells Fargo & Company from $197.00 to $193.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the technology company’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on WWD. Barclays increased their price target on Woodward from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $226.00 target price (up from $187.00) on shares of Woodward in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. StockNews.com raised shares of Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Woodward from $209.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective (down from $186.00) on shares of Woodward in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $189.78.

Woodward Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of WWD stock opened at $178.35 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $174.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $169.44. Woodward has a 52 week low of $133.56 and a 52 week high of $201.64. The stock has a market cap of $10.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.68, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 25th. The technology company reported $1.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $810.39 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.33 earnings per share. Woodward’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Woodward will post 5.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Woodward Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. Woodward’s payout ratio is 16.64%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.50, for a total transaction of $1,745,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,511 shares in the company, valued at $2,008,669.50. This trade represents a 46.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John D. Cohn sold 2,400 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.57, for a total value of $430,968.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 20,963 shares in the company, valued at $3,764,325.91. This represents a 10.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 60,313 shares of company stock valued at $10,752,072 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Woodward

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new position in Woodward during the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Woodward in the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of Woodward during the 3rd quarter worth $41,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of Woodward by 101.6% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 246 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in shares of Woodward in the third quarter valued at about $69,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

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.