Royce & Associates LP Has $22.05 Million Holdings in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD)

Royce & Associates LP lessened its stake in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) by 40.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 132,470 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 89,057 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Woodward were worth $22,046,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WWD. Harbour Investments Inc. raised its stake in Woodward by 10.7% during the third quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 2,093 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $359,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its stake in shares of Woodward by 10.5% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,648 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $283,000 after buying an additional 156 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Woodward by 3.5% in the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,758 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $302,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Woodward by 14.5% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 86,219 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $14,787,000 after buying an additional 10,908 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its stake in shares of Woodward by 0.3% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 119,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $20,410,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on WWD shares. Truist Financial upped their price objective 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 upped their price objective on Woodward from $193.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. UBS Group upped their target price on Woodward from $216.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Woodward from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Woodward has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $197.38.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Gregg C. Sengstack sold 4,600 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the director now directly owns 17,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,157. This trade represents a 20.86 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

Woodward Stock Up 2.1 %

WWD stock opened at $180.53 on Monday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $10.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.24, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.39. Woodward, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.45 and a fifty-two week high of $201.64. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $185.09 and a 200-day moving average of $175.12.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The technology company reported $1.35 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 prior year, the company posted $1.45 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Woodward, Inc. will post 6.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Woodward Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th were given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 20th. This is an increase from Woodward’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.76%.

Woodward Company 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.