California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 4,399 Shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD)

California Public Employees Retirement System lowered its position in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) by 3.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 114,698 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 4,399 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Woodward were worth $15,614,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Woodward during the third quarter worth about $438,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its position in shares of Woodward by 11.7% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 10,975 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,364,000 after acquiring an additional 1,151 shares during the last quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Woodward during the third quarter valued at $32,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Woodward by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 316,467 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $39,324,000 after acquiring an additional 27,119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Woodward during the 3rd quarter valued at about $460,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on WWD shares. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Woodward from $136.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Woodward from $165.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Woodward from $134.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. Alembic Global Advisors lowered shares of Woodward from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $148.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Woodward from $168.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $158.22.

Woodward Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of WWD opened at $151.07 on Tuesday. Woodward, Inc. has a twelve month low of $95.60 and a twelve month high of $160.79. The company has a current ratio of 2.65, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $147.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $138.52. The company has a market cap of $9.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.36.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 29th. The technology company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.33. The business had revenue of $786.73 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.13 million. Woodward had a net margin of 9.50% and a return on equity of 15.26%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 27.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.49 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Woodward, Inc. will post 5.27 EPS for the current year.

Woodward Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 21st. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.10%.

Insider Activity at Woodward

In other news, EVP Christopher Fawzy sold 11,000 shares of Woodward stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total transaction of $1,540,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,836 shares in the company, valued at $677,040. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Christopher Fawzy sold 11,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total transaction of $1,540,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $677,040. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 38,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.98, for a total value of $5,494,626.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 11,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,680,049.34. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 51,200 shares of company stock worth $7,242,916 in the last quarter. 1.12% of the stock is owned by company 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.