Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Makes New $924,000 Investment in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 6,786 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $924,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Woodward by 79.3% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Woodward during the second quarter worth about $28,000. KB Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Woodward during the first quarter worth about $30,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Woodward during the third quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Woodward during the second quarter worth about $71,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on WWD shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Woodward from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Woodward from $165.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Woodward from $159.00 to $201.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Woodward from $134.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Woodward from $151.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $158.22.

Insider Transactions at Woodward

In other Woodward news, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 38,700 shares of Woodward stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.98, for a total value of $5,494,626.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,680,049.34. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Woodward news, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 38,700 shares of Woodward stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.98, for a total value of $5,494,626.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,680,049.34. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Christopher Fawzy sold 11,000 shares of Woodward stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total transaction of $1,540,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $677,040. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 51,200 shares of company stock valued at $7,242,916 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.12% of the company’s stock.

Woodward Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of Woodward stock opened at $148.89 on Wednesday. Woodward, Inc. has a 12-month low of $91.42 and a 12-month high of $160.79. The company has a current ratio of 2.65, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The stock has a market cap of $8.98 billion, a PE ratio of 31.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a 50-day moving average of $145.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $137.24.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last issued its earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The technology company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.33. Woodward had a net margin of 9.50% and a return on equity of 15.26%. The company had revenue of $786.73 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $750.13 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.49 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 27.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Woodward, Inc. will post 5.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Woodward Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 20th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. This is a boost from Woodward’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 16th. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.10%.

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.