Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Buys 863 Shares of Woodward, Inc. $WWD

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) by 24.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,443 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 863 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Woodward were worth $1,089,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its stake in shares of Woodward by 32.5% during the second quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 220 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in Woodward by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,909 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $468,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its position in Woodward by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 3,765 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $687,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. increased its position in Woodward by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 6,830 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,246,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Finally, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Woodward by 1.1% during the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 7,649 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,396,000 after buying an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WWD has been the topic of several research reports. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Woodward from $267.00 to $294.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Woodward from $283.00 to $299.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Alembic Global Advisors raised shares of Woodward from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $281.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Woodward from $200.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Woodward from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Woodward currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $268.67.

Woodward Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of Woodward stock opened at $262.11 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $249.20 and its 200 day moving average is $235.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.72 billion, a PE ratio of 41.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.26. Woodward, Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.82 and a 1 year high of $270.21. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Woodward Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.72%.

Insider Activity at Woodward

In other news, Director John D. Cohn sold 1,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $244.32, for a total transaction of $427,560.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 20,963 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,121,680.16. The trade was a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

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.