Summit Financial LLC Purchases 81 Shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD)

Summit Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) by 6.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,324 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 81 shares during the quarter. Summit Financial LLC’s holdings in Woodward were worth $220,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Woodward by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,421,483 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $415,309,000 after acquiring an additional 110,569 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Woodward by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,278,502 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $219,321,000 after purchasing an additional 59,290 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Woodward by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,040,384 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $173,141,000 after purchasing an additional 48,195 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Woodward in the fourth quarter worth approximately $120,220,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Woodward by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 649,961 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $108,166,000 after buying an additional 36,911 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WWD has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Woodward from $226.00 to $229.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Woodward from $216.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Woodward from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Woodward from $193.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $197.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Gregg C. Sengstack sold 4,600 shares of Woodward stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.86, for a total transaction of $864,156.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 17,450 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,157. This trade represents a 20.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 3,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.36, for a total value of $641,388.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,477 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,008,109.72. This represents a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 27,900 shares of company stock worth $5,215,444. 0.82% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Woodward Stock Performance

Shares of WWD opened at $157.29 on Friday. Woodward, Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.45 and a 52 week high of $201.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.89. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $184.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $177.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.35, a P/E/G 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 last year, the company posted $1.45 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast 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 a boost from Woodward’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. Woodward’s payout ratio is 18.76%.

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.