State Street Corp Acquires 110,569 Shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD)

State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,421,483 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 110,569 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp owned approximately 4.06% of Woodward worth $415,309,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WWD. Naya Capital Management UK Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Woodward in the third quarter worth about $99,000,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Woodward by 94.2% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 434,385 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $75,735,000 after acquiring an additional 210,746 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Woodward by 17,072.3% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 76,760 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $13,165,000 after purchasing an additional 76,313 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in shares of Woodward by 13.3% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 634,698 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $110,679,000 after purchasing an additional 74,734 shares during the period. Finally, Alpha Wave Global LP boosted its position in shares of Woodward by 26.0% in the third quarter. Alpha Wave Global LP now owns 311,253 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $53,383,000 after purchasing an additional 64,212 shares during the period. 81.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Woodward Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WWD opened at $179.73 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $10.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.91, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38. Woodward, Inc. has a 1 year low of $131.12 and a 1 year high of $201.64. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $170.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $170.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.89 and a quick ratio of 1.23.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 25th. The technology company reported $1.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $855.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $810.39 million. Woodward had a net margin of 11.22% and a return on equity of 17.13%. Woodward’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Woodward, Inc. will post 5.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Woodward Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio is 16.64%.

Insider Activity at Woodward

In other Woodward news, Director John D. Cohn sold 2,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $179.57, for a total transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.50, for a total transaction of $1,745,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 11,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,008,669.50. This trade represents a 46.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 60,313 shares of company stock valued at $10,752,072. Insiders own 1.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays lifted their target price 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Woodward from $158.00 to $162.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $226.00 target price (up previously from $187.00) on shares of Woodward in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. StockNews.com raised Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Woodward from $209.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $187.44.

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.