Woodward (WWD) will cut its quarterly dividend by 71.0 percent to $0.08125 per share. Earlier this year the aerospace components maker had hiked its quarterly dividend by 72.3 percent, marking 6 consecutive years of double digit dividend increases. The $0.28 per share dividend in Q1 was originally announced as part of the recently announced merger transaction with Hexcel Corporation.

The next dividend is payable on June 1, 2020, for stockholders of record as of May 18, 2020. In its press release announcing this dividend Woodward doesn't explain the big dividend cut. A new annualized dividend rate of 32.5 cents per share yields 0.6% at a stock price of $58.51. Including the dividend hike announced in the first quarter the total dividend cut in 2020 is exactly 50.0 percent.

Woodward is a designer, manufacturer, and service provider of control system solutions and components for the aerospace and industrial markets. Its fluid, combustion, electrical, and motion control systems help customers offer cleaner, more reliable, and more efficient equipment. Woodward's customers include original equipment manufacturers and end users of their products. The company has production and assembly facilities in the United States, Europe and Asia. Woodward was established in 1870, incorporated in 1902, and is headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado. The company has paid quarterly dividends every year since it became publicly traded in 1940.