Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Purchases 579 Shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD)

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its stake in shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) by 1.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 52,772 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 579 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp’s holdings in Woodward were worth $8,133,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WWD. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Woodward by 34.7% in the first quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 268 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Woodward by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 28,230 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,843,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of Woodward by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 491 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in shares of Woodward by 0.3% in the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 28,741 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,430,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Michigan Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Woodward by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 14,510 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,975,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WWD has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Woodward from $140.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Woodward from $143.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Woodward from $156.00 to $172.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Woodward from $159.00 to $201.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Woodward from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.38.

Woodward Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of WWD traded up $0.37 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $177.07. 239,748 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 402,388. The firm has a market cap of $10.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.96, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.37. Woodward, Inc. has a 12-month low of $118.25 and a 12-month high of $188.35. The company has a current ratio of 2.62, a quick ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $179.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $156.18.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The technology company reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.34. The firm had revenue of $835.34 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $807.04 million. Woodward had a return on equity of 16.50% and a net margin of 11.09%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.01 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Woodward, Inc. will post 5.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Woodward Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 22nd will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. Woodward’s payout ratio is currently 17.48%.

Insider Activity at Woodward

In other Woodward news, Director Gregg C. Sengstack sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.01, for a total value of $1,002,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 17,450 shares in the company, valued at $2,914,324.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.