State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Has $4.93 Million Stock Holdings in Woodward, Inc. $WWD

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lessened its holdings in shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 20,101 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 102 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Woodward were worth $4,927,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its holdings in Woodward by 32.5% in the 2nd quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 220 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $54,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in Woodward by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,909 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $468,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in Woodward by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 3,765 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $687,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. raised its holdings in Woodward by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 6,830 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,246,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Woodward by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 7,649 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,396,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John D. Cohn sold 1,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $244.32, for a total transaction of $427,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 20,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,121,680.16. This trade represents a 7.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.82% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on WWD. Northcoast Research raised Woodward to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Barclays upped their price target on Woodward from $200.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Truist Financial upped their price target on Woodward from $267.00 to $294.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Wall Street Zen cut Woodward from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, September 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Woodward in a report on Friday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Woodward currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $268.67.

Woodward Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of WWD opened at $265.82 on Monday. Woodward, Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.82 and a 1 year high of $267.45. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $247.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $232.47. The stock has a market cap of $15.94 billion, a PE ratio of 42.06, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.26.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 28th. The technology company reported $1.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.14. Woodward had a return on equity of 16.57% and a net margin of 11.32%.The business had revenue of $915.45 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $884.98 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.63 EPS. Woodward’s quarterly revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Woodward, Inc. will post 6.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Woodward Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 4th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.72%.

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.