HighTower Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD)

HighTower Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 7,922 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 141 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Woodward were worth $1,318,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WWD. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in shares of Woodward by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 16,008 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,664,000 after acquiring an additional 1,512 shares in the last quarter. NBT Bank N A NY bought a new position in Woodward in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. AlphaQuest LLC raised its holdings in Woodward by 910.9% in the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 9,816 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,634,000 after purchasing an additional 8,845 shares in the last quarter. Argentarii LLC purchased a new position in Woodward during the fourth quarter valued at $481,000. Finally, Personal CFO Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Woodward during the 4th quarter valued at $289,000. 81.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on WWD. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Woodward from $216.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised 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, February 4th. StockNews.com raised Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Barclays raised their price objective on Woodward from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their target price on Woodward from $226.00 to $229.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Woodward currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $197.38.

Woodward Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of Woodward stock opened at $193.08 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.89 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $186.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.31. Woodward, Inc. has a 1 year low of $144.45 and a 1 year high of $201.64. The stock has a market cap of $11.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.34, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.39.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The technology company reported $1.35 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.21. Woodward had a return on equity of 16.76% and a net margin of 11.18%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.45 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Woodward, Inc. will post 6.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Woodward Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 20th. This is an increase from Woodward’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio is 18.76%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Gregg C. Sengstack sold 4,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.86, for a total transaction of $864,156.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 17,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,157. This represents a 20.86 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 10,000 shares of Woodward stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.50, for a total value of $1,845,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,477 shares in the company, valued at $2,855,506.50. This trade represents a 39.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

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.