Brokerages Set Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) Target Price at $268.67

Shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eight have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $268.6667.

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WWD. Wall Street Zen downgraded Woodward from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Woodward from $229.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Zacks Research cut shares of Woodward from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Woodward from $200.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Wolfe Research set a $300.00 price target on shares of Woodward and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John D. Cohn sold 1,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $244.32, for a total value of $427,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 20,963 shares in the company, valued at $5,121,680.16. The trade was a 7.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.82% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Woodward

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WWD. Norges Bank bought a new position in Woodward during the 2nd quarter worth about $201,555,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Woodward by 31.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 639,139 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $156,646,000 after purchasing an additional 154,071 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Woodward during the 1st quarter worth about $25,667,000. Senator Investment Group LP bought a new position in Woodward during the 1st quarter worth about $22,355,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC acquired a new position in shares of Woodward during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,208,000. Institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Woodward Trading Up 2.6%

Shares of NASDAQ:WWD opened at $253.51 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $15.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.26. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $246.57 and its 200-day moving average is $227.28. Woodward has a 52-week low of $146.82 and a 52-week high of $267.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 2.04.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 28th. The technology company reported $1.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $915.45 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $884.98 million. Woodward had a return on equity of 16.57% and a net margin of 11.32%.The firm’s revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.63 earnings per share. Woodward has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.500-6.750 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Woodward will post 6.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Woodward Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Woodward’s payout ratio is 17.72%.

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.