Joining us today from the company are Mr. Tom Gendron, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Bob Weber, Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Don Guzzardo, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. As an industry veteran with deep knowledge of our business and end markets, I'm confident that Bob will help us manage through these challenging conditions by taking these necessary steps, we're able to focus on what matters most in these uncertain times which is protecting the health and safety of our team members and maintaining our financial strength.
Hexcel (HXL) and Woodward decide to terminate their merger deal in response to the increasing turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic in the aerospace sector.
The companies, which make and supply aircraft parts, had agreed to a merger in January in a $6.4 billion deal. The market rout triggered by the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic downturn has thrown a wrench into corporate deal making. Boeing, which halted the production of its grounded 737 MAX aircraft in January, said on Sunday it would extend the suspension of production at its Washington state facilities until further notice.
Q2 2020 Woodward Inc Earnings Call
Stocks trading with margin of safety Continue reading...
Woodward (WWD) delivered earnings and revenue surprises of 64.29% and 4.31%, respectively, for the quarter ended March 2020. Do the numbers hold clues to what lies ahead for the stock?
Woodward's (WWD) reports lower sales in the Aerospace and Industrial segments on a year-over-year basis in second-quarter fiscal 2020.
The halt in production at many of Boeing and Airbus' manufacturing units has raised an alarm for companies like Spirit AeroSystems, Hexcel and Woodward.
Major indices of the aerospace and defense industry end in the green in the trailing five trading sessions
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- In an ordinary April, Corporate America would now be gearing up for proxy season, preparing for annual meetings and arguing with activist investors over strategy. Instead, companies find themselves on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis, facing difficult choices about how best to protect workers, investors, and their businesses from the virus and its fallout.Among the issues normally debated at spring shareholder meetings is the use of anti-takeover measures that critics say make it harder for activist investors to hold management accountable, or to push management to shift strategic direction. Supporters of these measures say that they are necessary because they allow firms to make long-term investments. Those debates have been hard-fought for years, and there are ordinarily strong arguments for and against limiting these defensive measures. But whatever one’s view of them, everyone should recognize that this is no ordinary moment. Management needs flexibility now to take the extraordinary actions required by this crisis.Anti-takeover measures, including the “poison pill” shareholder-rights plan, protect management from outside pressure by limiting the stakes that any given investor can acquire. This insulates the company, to some degree, from the “market for corporate control” and from election contests brought by activists. America’s largest investors have typically been skeptical of the use of defenses because of a concern that they will shield management from accountability to investors. Indeed, the two dominant firms advising shareholders how to vote in corporate elections have long recommended voting against all members of a board that adopts takeover defenses without the approval of shareholders before or shortly after the fact.Investor skepticism about takeover defenses is understandable. Although the empirical evidence is far from conclusive, the unilateral adoption of such measures poses the risk of entrenching underperforming insiders, even as it carries the potential of encouraging firms to make long-term investments. The debate won’t be resolved anytime soon — but it needs to be left for another time. Management’s immediate focus must be battling the virus, not engaging in proxy fights.Corporate managers will soon have to make enormously consequential decisions for millions of Americans in the face of unprecedented uncertainty. Should companies conserve cash by laying off workers, especially in industries where a return to full productivity seems especially far off? Or should they follow the examples of Starbucks Corp. and Paypal Holdings Inc., which have assured employees of future paychecks despite the devastating effects of the crisis on their business? Some manufacturers may even need to pivot to producing personal protective equipment at great short-term cost to the companies and their investors. Crucial decisions like these must be made quickly — and managers should be free to make them without worrying that they will soon find an activist on their doorstep demanding answers.Even some activist investors seem to agree. Many have voluntarily walked away from planned attacks, or pursued constructive and friendly settlements with target-company boards. But not all activists have said they will take this approach. That’s why some boards have recently announced the adoption of takeover defenses in the midst of the crisis even though, under institutional investors’ current policies, that could put directors’ jobs at risk. Just Monday, for instance — after calling off a planned merger on account of the pandemic — aerospace suppliers Hexcel Corp. and Woodward Inc. each adopted shareholder-rights plans.Giving companies the space they need to manage this crisis will require leadership from institutional investors. In particular, proxy-advisory firms such as Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass Lewis that have spearheaded investor skepticism over takeover defenses should suspend their anti-poison pill policies for the duration of the crisis and make clear that they will give companies the case-by-case consideration that this moment requires. Those firms have come under considerable fire from business advocates claiming that they fail to give situation-specific advice, even drawing some surprising threats of federal regulation. Adjusting their policies in light of the current crisis would provide a compelling counterargument to those who say those firms are ideologically driven and want to impose one-size-fits-all solutions on corporate America.In reviewing the use of shareholder rights plans adopted in the crisis, investors and proxy advisory firms must be attentive to the extraordinary pressures that firms are facing. At the same time, boards shouldn’t take advantage of this crisis to erect entrenched defensive measures like staggered boards that shareholders have clearly rejected. This is a time to put the ordinary debate aside, and to provide boards with space to respond to the multiple challenges of protecting firms, employees, consumers, and the country.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Edward B. Rock is a professor at New York University's School of Law and co-director of NYU’s Institute for Corporate Governance and Finance. Haley Sylvester is a resident fellow at New York University's Institute on Corporate Governance and Finance.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
A Colorado airplane parts manufacturer called off its multibillion-dollar merger with another company due to the havoc the COVID-19 pandemic is creating in the aviation industry. Woodward Inc. (Nasdaq: WWD), based in Fort Collins, and Hexcel Corp. (NYSE: HXL), based in Stamford, Connecticut, on Monday mutually cancelled their all-stock deal that would have combined major makers of aircraft control systems and parts. Woodward also said Monday that it will reduce spending because of the shrinking demand in aviation manufacturing, including laying off some employees, furloughing others, reducing its CEO's pay by 25% and instituting a hiring and wage freeze.
Woodward, Inc. (WWD) today announced that Robert (“Bob”) F. Weber, Jr., will resume the role of Vice Chairman, Chief Financial Officer, effective April 13, 2020, in response to the ongoing global economic challenges and uncertainties attributable to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the resulting impact on the broader macroeconomic environment and its business. Concurrently, Jonathan (“Jack”) W. Thayer, the Company’s current Chief Financial Officer, will depart the Company. As part of our continuing efforts to navigate this unprecedented uncertainty, we made the strategic decision to shift Bob, a seasoned veteran of the Company, back into the critical role of Vice Chairman, Chief Financial Officer.
FORT COLLINS, Colo., April 30, 2020 -- Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) today announced that its Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.08125 per share for the quarter,.
Let's see if Woodward, Inc. (WWD) stock is a good choice for value-oriented investors right now, or if investors subscribing to this methodology should look elsewhere for top picks.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Who’s willing to bet on the aerospace industry’s quick return from the coronavirus devastation? Not the CEOs of two of its leading suppliers. Woodward Inc. and Hexcel Corp. mutually agreed to call off their planned merger in light of the current pandemic. More than half of the world’s fleet has been grounded as travel bans and fear of contagion keep fliers at home, forcing the aerospace industry into a fight for its survival. This isn’t the first deal to get scotched because of the coronavirus: Xerox Holdings Corp. called off its $35 billion hostile pursuit of HP Inc. and private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc. reportedly abandoned talks with TV-station owner Tegna Inc. for an $8.5 billion takeover. But both of those transactions reportedly involved at least some cash, which has become a precious commodity in the age of the coronavirus. The Woodward-Hexcel merger, by contrast, was all-stock, and as such, not dependent on capricious debt markets and an ill-timed overloading of balance sheets.There were some signs the companies were still being punished for going through with the deal: As of Friday, Hexcel and Woodward had each dropped more than 55% since the merger was announced in mid-January, compared with a decline of about 35% for the SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF. At those prices, the deal terms valued Hexcel at about $32 a share, or about $3.7 billion including debt, compared with an enterprise value of about $7.5 billion when the merger was first announced.While Hexcel shares declined Monday on news that the merger was off, Woodward’s stock rallied more than 10%. That gain feels short-sighted. If you liked an aerospace combination that “brings together a broad, unparalleled portfolio of leading-edge technologies” with a “strong balance sheet” in January, you should like it even more in April. The fact that the companies themselves aren’t convinced of this is on the one hand a sign of just how deep and long-lasting the slump in aerospace will be. But it also feels like a missed opportunity. A famous Warren Buffett maxim comes to mind: Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful. To be sure, one of the big selling points of the Woodward-Hexcel merger was the ability to significantly ramp up research and development spending to better position the combined company to compete on the next generation of aircraft technology, with an eye toward better fuel efficiency and lower emissions. That has likely fallen further down the list of priorities for aerospace companies right now given the virus cash crunch and a drop in oil prices that’s made it more economical to keep flying older, clunkier models. There is also the question of distraction. Big deals are complicated. For all of Hexcel and Woodward’s previous talk of complementary cultures, there are bound to be integration hiccups, particularly when the virus fallout makes it likely job cuts will be in order. Separately on Monday, Woodward said it was implementing “workforce management” policies including a hiring freeze, layoffs and furloughs, without specifying the number of jobs that would be affected. It will also reduce its dividend, eliminate 2020 bonus payments and trim pay for the CEO, board and top officers. Hexcel also announced plans to evaluate employment levels and reduce spending.Still, the trend toward more climate-friendly aircraft is likely to be sustained over the longer term and the companies would have gotten more out of these cost-reduction actions if they were spread out across a bigger, combined entity. “Calling off the merger is clearly bad news for both companies, as we think scaling up makes a lot of sense, particularly when it comes to dealing with a crisis,” Vertical Research Partners analyst Rob Stallard wrote in a note. Both Woodward and Hexcel also announced shareholder rights plans meant to guard against unwanted takeover advances in a sign they are worried someone else will have take advantage of their depressed stock prices and have the gumption to pull off a deal that they couldn’t.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Brooke Sutherland is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and industrial companies. She previously wrote an M&A column for Bloomberg News.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
FORT COLLINS, Colo., May 04, 2020 -- Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) today reported financial results for its second quarter of fiscal year 2020 ended March 31, 2020. (All amounts.
Woodward (WWD) pulls the plug on its much-awaited merger deal with Hexcel, which is expected to cause a major setback in the aerospace industry.
Their earnings yields beat the monthly spot rate of the 20-year high quality market corporate bonds Continue reading...
Woodward (WWD) doesn't possess the right combination of the two key ingredients for a likely earnings beat in its upcoming report. Get prepared with the key expectations.
Woodward, Inc. (WWD) announced today that it expects to report its fiscal 2020 second quarter financial results at approximately 4:00 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 4, 2020. The statements in this release contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements concerning the company’s quarterly cash dividend.