Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

by · The Markets Daily

Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD – Get Free Report) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 957,200 shares, a decline of 18.2% from the August 31st total of 1,170,000 shares. Approximately 1.7% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 470,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.0 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WWD. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $170.00 to $190.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. StockNews.com lowered Woodward from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Woodward from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $197.00 to $158.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Woodward from $200.00 to $186.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Truist Financial raised shares of Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $152.00 to $187.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $177.11.

Get Our Latest Report on Woodward

Woodward Trading Up 0.0 %

NASDAQ WWD opened at $170.51 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.38 billion, a PE ratio of 29.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a fifty day moving average of $163.65 and a 200 day moving average of $167.01. Woodward has a 1 year low of $119.03 and a 1 year high of $188.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.96 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The technology company reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $847.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $853.29 million. Woodward had a net margin of 11.47% and a return on equity of 17.16%. Woodward’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.37 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Woodward will post 5.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Woodward Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.59%. Woodward’s payout ratio is 17.48%.

Institutional Trading of Woodward

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WWD. GSA Capital Partners LLP lifted its position in shares of Woodward by 214.0% during the 4th quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 20,654 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,812,000 after purchasing an additional 14,077 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia purchased a new stake in shares of Woodward during the 4th quarter worth $1,416,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Woodward by 743.5% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 223,639 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $34,452,000 after purchasing an additional 197,125 shares during the last quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Woodward during the 1st quarter worth $3,962,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in Woodward by 36.5% during the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 20,216 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,116,000 after acquiring an additional 5,407 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

About Woodward

(Get Free Report)

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.

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