Panoramic Capital Partners LLC Purchases New Stake in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD)

Panoramic Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 2,052 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $341,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Woodward by 135.1% in 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 during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of Woodward in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,547,000. PEAK6 Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Woodward in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,448,000. Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in Woodward by 12.1% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 64,153 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $11,003,000 after acquiring an additional 6,917 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ingalls & Snyder LLC bought a new position in Woodward during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,698,000. 81.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Woodward Stock Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ:WWD opened at $193.09 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $180.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $170.92. Woodward, Inc. has a 52-week low of $134.82 and a 52-week high of $201.64. The company has a market cap of $11.46 billion, a PE ratio of 32.34, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.89.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The technology company reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.21. Woodward had a net margin of 11.18% and a return on equity of 16.76%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.45 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Woodward, Inc. will post 6.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Woodward Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This is a boost from Woodward’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. Woodward’s payout ratio is 16.75%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on WWD. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Woodward from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Woodward from $193.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Woodward from $226.00 to $229.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group raised their price target on Woodward from $216.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Woodward from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $197.38.

Insider Transactions at Woodward

In related news, Director John D. Cohn sold 2,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $179.57, for a total value of $430,968.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 20,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,764,325.91. This trade represents a 10.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Thomas G. Cromwell sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.85, for a total transaction of $1,818,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 11,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,093,275.35. This represents a 46.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 40,313 shares of company stock worth $7,230,572 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

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.