The Goldman Sachs Group Increases Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) Price Target to $201.00

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) had its target price hoisted by analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $159.00 to $201.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the technology company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 36.48% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on WWD. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Woodward from $151.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Woodward from $165.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Woodward from $168.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Woodward from $134.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. Finally, Alembic Global Advisors downgraded shares of Woodward from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $148.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $158.22.

Woodward Trading Down 1.1 %

WWD opened at $147.27 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $146.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $137.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.07, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.65 and a quick ratio of 1.69. Woodward has a one year low of $91.42 and a one year high of $160.79.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last announced its earnings results 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. Woodward had a return on equity of 15.26% and a net margin of 9.50%. The firm had revenue of $786.73 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.13 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.49 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 27.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Woodward will post 5.28 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John D. Cohn sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.86, for a total value of $208,290.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 20,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,850,934.66. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director John D. Cohn sold 1,500 shares of Woodward stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.86, for a total transaction of $208,290.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 20,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,850,934.66. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 38,700 shares of Woodward stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.98, for a total transaction of $5,494,626.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 11,833 shares in the company, valued at $1,680,049.34. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 51,200 shares of company stock worth $7,242,916. 1.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of WWD. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in Woodward by 0.9% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,004,839 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $584,691,000 after buying an additional 56,241 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Woodward by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,758,261 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $783,872,000 after buying an additional 37,011 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Woodward by 653.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,309,248 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $223,097,000 after buying an additional 2,002,572 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Woodward by 2.0% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,279,806 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $221,985,000 after buying an additional 44,428 shares during the period. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Woodward by 6.3% during the third quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,062,665 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $132,047,000 after buying an additional 62,897 shares during the period. 81.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.