Renaissance Technologies LLC Buys 600 Shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD)

Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) by 0.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 64,384 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 600 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC owned approximately 0.11% of Woodward worth $11,227,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of WWD. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Woodward by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 128,116 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $22,341,000 after purchasing an additional 3,122 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Woodward by 10.3% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 134,834 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $23,512,000 after purchasing an additional 12,612 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in Woodward by 136.3% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 68,877 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $12,011,000 after buying an additional 39,732 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Woodward during the second quarter worth about $271,000. Finally, Gryphon Financial Partners LLC boosted its stake in Woodward by 19.5% during the second quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,130 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $372,000 after buying an additional 347 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WWD has been the subject of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Woodward from $228.00 to $201.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Woodward from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $197.00 to $158.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Truist Financial raised shares of Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $152.00 to $187.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $170.00 to $190.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Woodward from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $177.11.

Woodward Stock Performance

Woodward stock opened at $169.81 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $10.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.37. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average of $164.49 and a 200-day moving average of $166.37. Woodward, Inc. has a 52 week low of $119.03 and a 52 week high of $188.35.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The technology company reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. Woodward had a return on equity of 17.16% and a net margin of 11.47%. The business had revenue of $847.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $853.29 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.37 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Woodward, Inc. will post 5.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Woodward Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.59%. Woodward’s payout ratio is 17.48%.

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.