Woodward, Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.25 (NASDAQ:WWD)

Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 24th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be given a dividend of 0.25 per share by the technology company on Wednesday, June 5th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 21st.

Woodward has raised its dividend by an average of 18.9% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 4 years. Woodward has a payout ratio of 16.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Woodward to earn $5.76 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 17.4%.

Woodward Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ WWD opened at $149.74 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 2.65. The firm has a market cap of $9.03 billion, a PE ratio of 31.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.36. Woodward has a one year low of $91.42 and a one year high of $160.79. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $147.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $138.15.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The technology company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $786.73 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.13 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.49 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 27.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Woodward will post 5.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on WWD. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Woodward from $136.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Woodward from $159.00 to $201.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Woodward from $165.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Woodward from $151.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Woodward from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $158.22.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John D. Cohn sold 1,500 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 20,531 shares in the company, valued at $2,850,934.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director John D. Cohn sold 1,500 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 20,531 shares in the company, valued at $2,850,934.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher Fawzy sold 11,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total transaction of $1,540,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 4,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $677,040. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 51,200 shares of company stock worth $7,242,916. 1.12% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.