Anthracite Investment Company Inc. Acquires New Stake in Woodward, Inc. $WWD

Anthracite Investment Company Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 15,000 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,676,000. Woodward comprises 1.9% of Anthracite Investment Company Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of WWD. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Woodward by 189.8% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 171 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC increased its position in Woodward by 116.7% during the first quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 182 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 98 shares during the last quarter. Virtus Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Woodward during the first quarter valued at $38,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its position in Woodward by 32.5% in the second quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 220 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC increased its position in Woodward by 50.0% in the first quarter. Berbice Capital Management LLC now owns 300 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.18% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Woodward

In other news, Director John D. Cohn sold 1,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $244.32, for a total value of $427,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 20,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,121,680.16. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.82% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on WWD shares. Zacks Research cut Woodward from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Wolfe Research set a $300.00 price target on Woodward and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Northcoast Research upgraded Woodward to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Truist Financial upped their price target on Woodward from $267.00 to $294.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Woodward from $200.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $268.67.

Woodward Stock Performance

NASDAQ WWD opened at $265.82 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $15.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $247.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $232.07. Woodward, Inc. has a twelve month low of $146.82 and a twelve month high of $267.45.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 28th. The technology company reported $1.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $915.45 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $884.98 million. Woodward had a return on equity of 16.57% and a net margin of 11.32%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.63 earnings per share. Woodward has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.500-6.750 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Woodward, Inc. will post 6.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Woodward Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Woodward’s dividend payout ratio is 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.