Curtiss-Wright (NYSE:CW) Cut to "Buy" at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Curtiss-Wright (NYSE:CW - Free Report) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report released on Saturday morning.

CW has been the subject of several other reports. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Curtiss-Wright from $357.00 to $338.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Curtiss-Wright from $450.00 to $424.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Curtiss-Wright from $331.00 to $309.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Curtiss-Wright from $432.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $404.29.

Curtiss-Wright Stock Performance

CW stock traded up $5.63 during trading on Friday, reaching $452.21. The company had a trading volume of 203,936 shares, compared to its average volume of 273,085. The company has a market cap of $17.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.04. Curtiss-Wright has a twelve month low of $258.85 and a twelve month high of $452.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.69. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $349.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $349.98.

Curtiss-Wright (NYSE:CW - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The aerospace company reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.43. Curtiss-Wright had a net margin of 12.98% and a return on equity of 17.11%. The business had revenue of $805.65 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $767.32 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.99 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Curtiss-Wright will post 12.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Curtiss-Wright Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.21%. This is an increase from Curtiss-Wright's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Curtiss-Wright's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.54%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Lynn M. Bamford sold 3,131 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.41, for a total transaction of $1,018,858.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 42,887 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,955,858.67. The trade was a 6.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO K Christopher Farkas sold 4,780 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.00, for a total value of $1,673,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 9,253 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,238,550. This represents a 34.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,642 shares of company stock worth $3,581,107 over the last three months. 0.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Curtiss-Wright

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Curtiss-Wright during the fourth quarter worth about $210,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of Curtiss-Wright by 61.0% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 169 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Curtiss-Wright in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $239,000. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in shares of Curtiss-Wright by 28.2% in the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 2,653 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $941,000 after purchasing an additional 584 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mutual Advisors LLC lifted its position in Curtiss-Wright by 8.4% during the fourth quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 1,061 shares of the aerospace company's stock worth $388,000 after buying an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.71% of the company's stock.

Curtiss-Wright Company Profile

Curtiss-Wright Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides engineered products, solutions, and services mainly to aerospace and defense, commercial power, process, and industrial markets worldwide. It operates through three segments: Aerospace & Industrial, Defense Electronics, and Naval & Power.