Aristides Capital LLC Buys Shares of 1,924 Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD)

Aristides Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,924 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $320,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp grew its position in Woodward by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,421,483 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $415,309,000 after buying an additional 110,569 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Woodward by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,302,237 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $216,771,000 after acquiring an additional 23,735 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Woodward by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,040,384 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $173,141,000 after acquiring an additional 48,195 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Woodward during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $120,220,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in shares of Woodward by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 649,961 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $108,166,000 after acquiring an additional 36,911 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Woodward Stock Performance

Woodward stock opened at $157.29 on Monday. Woodward, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.45 and a fifty-two week high of $201.64. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $184.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $177.26. 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 company has a market cap of $9.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.39.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 3rd. The technology company reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.21. Woodward had a net margin of 11.18% and a return on equity of 16.76%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.45 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Woodward, Inc. will post 6.15 EPS for the current year.

Woodward Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th were paid a $0.28 dividend. This is an increase from Woodward’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 20th. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.