Tidal Investments LLC Increases Position in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD)

Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) by 11.0% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,738 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 271 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC’s holdings in Woodward were worth $470,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in Woodward during the third quarter valued at about $2,547,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Woodward by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 9,897 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,742,000 after purchasing an additional 737 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Woodward by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,278,502 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $219,321,000 after purchasing an additional 59,290 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp lifted its stake in Woodward by 0.4% in the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 28,734 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,928,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Woodward by 51.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 42,189 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,236,000 after purchasing an additional 14,326 shares during the last quarter. 81.18% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WWD has been the topic of several research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Woodward from $158.00 to $162.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $160.00 price objective (down from $186.00) on shares of Woodward in a report on Friday, October 4th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Woodward from $209.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. StockNews.com raised shares of Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Woodward from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $187.44.

Woodward Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WWD opened at $170.22 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $172.27 and a 200 day moving average of $170.20. 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 stock has a market cap of $10.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.38. Woodward, Inc. has a 12 month low of $131.12 and a 12 month high of $201.64.

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

Woodward Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.59%. Woodward’s payout ratio is currently 16.64%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John D. Cohn sold 2,400 shares of the firm’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 sale, the director now owns 20,963 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,764,325.91. This trade represents a 10.27 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.65, for a total transaction of $1,776,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 11,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,044,929.15. This trade 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 worth $10,752,072. 0.82% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.