Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at StockNews.com

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) was upgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Tuesday.

WWD has been the topic of a number of other research reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Woodward from $216.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Truist Financial upped their price target on Woodward from $226.00 to $229.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Woodward from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Woodward from $193.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Woodward presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $197.38.

Woodward Trading Down 1.8 %

WWD traded down $3.40 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $184.50. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,181,663 shares, compared to its average volume of 475,271. Woodward has a 52-week low of $133.56 and a 52-week high of $201.64. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $179.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $170.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The firm has a market cap of $10.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.70, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.40.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The technology company reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.21. Woodward had a return on equity of 17.13% and a net margin of 11.22%. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.45 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Woodward will post 6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Woodward

In other Woodward news, Director John D. Cohn sold 2,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.57, for a total value of $430,968.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 20,963 shares in the company, valued at $3,764,325.91. The trade was a 10.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.65, for a total value of $1,776,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,044,929.15. The trade was a 46.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 60,313 shares of company stock valued at $10,752,072. 0.82% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WWD. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Woodward by 135.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 992,189 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $170,170,000 after buying an additional 570,124 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in Woodward in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,547,000. PEAK6 Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Woodward in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,448,000. Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Woodward by 12.1% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 64,153 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $11,003,000 after purchasing an additional 6,917 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ingalls & Snyder LLC bought a new stake in shares of Woodward during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,698,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

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.