Rodgers Brothers Inc. Has $850,000 Stock Holdings in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD)

Rodgers Brothers Inc. raised its stake in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) by 2.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,110 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Rodgers Brothers Inc.’s holdings in Woodward were worth $850,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of WWD. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Woodward during the 4th quarter valued at $120,220,000. Naya Capital Management UK Ltd. bought a new position in Woodward in the third quarter valued at about $99,000,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Woodward by 135.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 992,189 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $170,170,000 after purchasing an additional 570,124 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Woodward during the fourth quarter worth about $31,187,000. Finally, Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT acquired a new position in shares of Woodward in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $20,045,000. Institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Gregg C. Sengstack sold 4,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 17,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,157. This represents a 20.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 10,000 shares of Woodward stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.50, for a total transaction of $1,845,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,477 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,855,506.50. The trade was a 39.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 27,900 shares of company stock valued at $5,215,444 over the last ninety days. 0.82% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on WWD. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Woodward from $216.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Woodward from $226.00 to $229.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com upgraded Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. Barclays lifted their target price on Woodward from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Woodward from $193.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $197.38.

Woodward Stock Performance

Shares of Woodward stock opened at $183.29 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $186.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $176.78. Woodward, Inc. has a 1-year low of $144.45 and a 1-year high of $201.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The company has a market cap of $10.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.70, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.39.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last released 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 quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.45 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Woodward, Inc. will post 6.15 EPS for the current year.

Woodward Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors 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 0.61%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 20th. This is an increase from Woodward’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Woodward’s payout ratio is presently 18.76%.

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.