Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey Raises Position in Woodward, Inc. $WWD

Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey lifted its stake in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) by 5.1% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 22,575 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,101 shares during the period. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey’s holdings in Woodward were worth $5,533,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its position in Woodward by 12.8% in the first quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 12,153 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,218,000 after buying an additional 1,381 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its stake in shares of Woodward by 1.1% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 17,389 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,173,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the period. Balentine LLC bought a new stake in shares of Woodward in the 1st quarter worth about $219,000. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its stake in shares of Woodward by 1,040.3% during the 1st quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 707 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $129,000 after purchasing an additional 645 shares during the period. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in Woodward during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,438,000. Institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Northcoast Research raised Woodward to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Alembic Global Advisors upgraded Woodward from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $281.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Woodward from $200.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Woodward from $283.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Woodward in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $268.67.

Woodward Price Performance

WWD opened at $260.44 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.21, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Woodward, Inc. has a 12-month low of $146.82 and a 12-month high of $274.50. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $252.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $241.73.

Woodward Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director John D. Cohn sold 1,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director owned 20,963 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

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.