EP Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 824 Shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) by 13.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,339 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 824 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Woodward were worth $823,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WWD. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Woodward during the 4th quarter worth approximately $84,157,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Woodward by 743.5% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 223,639 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $34,452,000 after acquiring an additional 197,125 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. raised its position in Woodward by 37.6% during the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 524,683 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $71,425,000 after purchasing an additional 143,410 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Woodward by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,835,915 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $899,431,000 after purchasing an additional 77,654 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Woodward by 3,387.8% during the 4th quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 78,231 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,650,000 after purchasing an additional 75,988 shares in the last quarter. 81.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WWD. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Woodward from $159.00 to $201.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Barclays lifted their price target on Woodward from $140.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Woodward from $156.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Woodward from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 28th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their target price on Woodward from $143.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.38.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Gregg C. Sengstack sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.01, for a total value of $1,002,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 17,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,914,324.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 1.12% of the company’s stock.

Woodward Stock Performance

Woodward stock traded up $3.79 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $183.13. 463,183 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 400,659. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 2.62 and a quick ratio of 1.78. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $180.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $159.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.37. Woodward, Inc. has a 1 year low of $118.64 and a 1 year high of $188.35.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The technology company reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.34. The business had revenue of $835.34 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $807.04 million. Woodward had a return on equity of 16.50% and a net margin of 11.09%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.01 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Woodward, Inc. will post 5.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Woodward Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.