Janus Henderson Group PLC Purchases 181 Shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD)

Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) by 0.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 27,255 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 181 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC’s holdings in Woodward were worth $4,673,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WWD. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Woodward by 2.6% in the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,380,384 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $240,711,000 after buying an additional 34,946 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. increased its holdings in Woodward by 13.3% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Woodward by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 541,496 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $94,426,000 after purchasing an additional 16,083 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Woodward by 94.2% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 434,385 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $75,735,000 after purchasing an additional 210,746 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Woodward by 7.2% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 425,854 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $74,261,000 after buying an additional 28,698 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Woodward Trading Up 1.3 %

Woodward stock opened at $182.12 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $170.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $170.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.30, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.89. Woodward, Inc. has a 52 week low of $131.12 and a 52 week high of $201.64.

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

Woodward Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 21st. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.64%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John D. Cohn sold 2,400 shares of Woodward stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.57, for a total transaction of $430,968.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 20,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,764,325.91. This trade represents a 10.27 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.50, for a total value of $1,745,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,008,669.50. This represents a 46.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 60,313 shares of company stock valued at $10,752,072. Company insiders own 1.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WWD. UBS Group lifted their target price on Woodward from $209.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $226.00 target price (up previously from $187.00) on shares of Woodward in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $160.00 price target (down from $186.00) on shares of Woodward in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Woodward from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.