Woodward, Inc. $WWD Shares Bought by XTX Topco Ltd

XTX Topco Ltd lifted its position in shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) by 213.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,043 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,434 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd’s holdings in Woodward were worth $1,236,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WWD. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Woodward by 189.8% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 171 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Virtus Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Woodward in the 1st quarter worth about $38,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its position in shares of Woodward by 32.5% in the 2nd quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 220 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Woodward by 2,218.2% in the 2nd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 255 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $62,000 after buying an additional 244 shares during the period. Finally, Assetmark Inc. grew its position in shares of Woodward by 25.9% during the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 505 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $92,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. 81.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Woodward

In related news, Director John D. Cohn sold 1,750 shares of the company’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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,121,680.16. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.82% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Zacks Research cut shares of Woodward from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 15th. Alembic Global Advisors upgraded Woodward from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $281.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. UBS Group raised their price target on Woodward from $303.00 to $329.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Woodward in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Woodward from $200.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $273.22.

Woodward Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WWD opened at $300.29 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $260.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $247.69. The company has a market cap of $18.01 billion, a PE ratio of 47.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.26. Woodward, Inc. has a 12-month low of $146.82 and a 12-month high of $303.07.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 24th. The technology company reported $2.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $995.26 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $943.15 million. Woodward had a return on equity of 16.57% and a net margin of 11.32%.The firm’s revenue was up 16.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.41 EPS. Woodward has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.500-8.000 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Woodward, Inc. will post 6.15 EPS for the current year.

Woodward declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, November 20th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.80 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to reacquire up to 11.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Woodward Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.58%.

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.