Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) Price Target Raised to $201.00 at The Goldman Sachs Group

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) had its price objective increased by research analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $159.00 to $201.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the technology company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 37.72% from the stock’s current price.

WWD has been the subject of a number of other research reports. StockNews.com lowered Woodward from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Woodward from $165.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. UBS Group upped their price target on Woodward from $168.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Barclays upped their price target on Woodward from $134.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. Finally, Alembic Global Advisors lowered Woodward from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $148.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $158.22.

Woodward Price Performance

Shares of WWD traded up $0.39 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $145.95. The stock had a trading volume of 24,941 shares, compared to its average volume of 364,469. The company has a market capitalization of $8.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.36. Woodward has a 12-month low of $91.42 and a 12-month high of $160.79. The company’s 50-day moving average is $145.72 and its 200 day moving average is $137.07. The company has a current ratio of 2.65, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Woodward

In other Woodward news, Director John D. Cohn sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.86, for a total transaction of $208,290.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 20,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,850,934.66. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director John D. Cohn sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.86, for a total value of $208,290.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 20,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,850,934.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Christopher Fawzy sold 11,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total value of $1,540,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 4,836 shares in the company, valued at $677,040. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 51,200 shares of company stock worth $7,242,916. Insiders own 1.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Woodward

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Woodward by 0.9% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,004,839 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $584,691,000 after purchasing an additional 56,241 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Woodward by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,758,261 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $783,872,000 after purchasing an additional 37,011 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Woodward by 653.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,309,248 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $223,097,000 after purchasing an additional 2,002,572 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Woodward by 2.0% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,279,806 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $221,985,000 after purchasing an additional 44,428 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC grew its position in Woodward by 6.3% in the third quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,062,665 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $132,047,000 after acquiring an additional 62,897 shares in the last quarter. 81.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Woodward Company 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.