Woodward (WWD) Risk Analysis

At September 30, 2025, we had $832,288 of goodwill, representing approximately 18% of our total assets. We test goodwill for impairment at the reporting unit level on at least an annual basis or more frequently if an event occurs or circumstances change that would more likely than not reduce the fair value of a reporting unit below its carrying amount. Future goodwill impairment charges may occur if estimates of fair values decrease, which would reduce future earnings. In addition, we may incur asset impairment charges if asset utilization declines, if customer demand decreases, or for a number of other reasons, which would reduce future earnings. Any such impairment charges could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. There can be no assurance that our estimates and assumptions of the fair value of our reporting units, the current economic environment, or the other inputs used in forecasting the present value of forecasted cash flows used to estimate the fair value of our reporting units will prove to be accurate projections of future performance, and any material error in our estimates and assumptions, could result in us needing to take a material impairment charge, which would have the effects discussed above.

As of September 30, 2025, our total debt was $702,202, including $390,000 in unsecured notes denominated in U.S. dollars issued in private placements and $187,613 of unsecured notes denominated in Euros issued in private placements. We are obligated to make interest and scheduled principal payments under the agreements governing our long-term debt, which requires us to dedicate a portion of our net cash provided by operating activities to payments on our indebtedness, and which may reduce the availability of our cash for other purposes, including business development efforts and mergers and acquisitions. These debt obligations could make us more vulnerable to general adverse economic and industry conditions and could limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and the industries in which we operate, thereby placing us at a disadvantage to our competitors that have less indebtedness. Further, we may require additional capital to repay our debt obligations when they mature, and such capital may not be available on terms acceptable to us or at all. Our existing revolving credit facility and note purchase agreements impose financial covenants on us and our subsidiaries that require us to maintain certain leverage ratios and minimum levels of consolidated interest coverage. Certain of these agreements require us to repay outstanding borrowings with portions of the proceeds we receive from certain sales of property or assets and specified future debt offerings. These financial covenants place certain restrictions on our business that may affect our ability to execute our business strategy successfully or take other actions that we believe would be in the best interests of our Company. These covenants include limitations or restrictions, among other things, on our ability and the ability of our subsidiaries to: - incur additional indebtedness;- pay dividends or make distributions on our capital stock or certain other restricted payments or investments;- purchase or redeem stock;- issue stock of our subsidiaries;- make domestic and foreign investments and extend credit;- engage in transactions with affiliates;- transfer and sell assets;- effect a consolidation or merger or sell, transfer, lease, or otherwise dispose of all or substantially all of our assets; and - create liens on our assets to secure debt. These agreements contain certain customary events of default, including certain cross-default provisions related to other outstanding debt arrangements. Any breach of the covenants under these agreements or other event of default could cause a default under these agreements and/or a cross-default under our other debt arrangements, which could restrict our ability to borrow under our revolving credit facility. If there were an event of default under certain provisions of our debt arrangements that was not cured or waived, the holders of the defaulted debt may be able to cause all amounts outstanding with respect to the debt instrument, plus any required settlement costs, to be due and payable immediately. Our assets and available cash balances may not be sufficient to fully repay borrowings under our outstanding debt instruments if accelerated upon an event of default. If we are unable to repay, refinance, or restructure our indebtedness as required, or amend the covenants contained in these agreements, the lenders or note holders may be entitled to obtain a lien or institute foreclosure proceedings against our assets. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Our success depends in part on our ability to develop technologies and inventions and other intellectual property, and obtain intellectual property rights and enforce such intellectual property rights worldwide. In this regard, we rely on patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret laws in the United States and in other jurisdictions where we do business, as well as license agreements, nondisclosure agreements, and confidentiality and other contractual provisions. However, we cannot be certain we will be able to obtain patents or other intellectual property rights in our new technologies and inventions or, if we do, the scope of such rights may not be sufficiently broad to afford us any significant commercial advantage over our competitors. Further, our existing and future intellectual property rights may not provide us with competitive advantages or distinguish our products and services from those of our competitors. The technologies and inventions developed by us in the future may not be considered valuable by customers or provide us with a competitive advantage, or competitors may develop similar or identical technologies and inventions independently of us and before we do. Effective protection of intellectual property rights is expensive and difficult to maintain, both in terms of application and maintenance costs, as well as the costs of defending and enforcing those rights. Competitors and other third parties may also challenge the ownership, validity, and/or enforceability of our patents or other intellectual property rights. Moreover, the laws of certain foreign jurisdictions do not recognize intellectual property rights or protect them to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. To the extent we do assert our intellectual property rights against third parties, we may not be successful and adequate remedies may not be available in the event of infringement or unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights, or disclosure of our trade secrets. Third parties may in the future assert that we have infringed, misappropriated, or otherwise violated their intellectual property rights. We cannot assure you that our current or future technologies are not infringing or violating intellectual property rights of third parties, or will not do so in the future. In the event we face claims of infringement or misappropriation, we may face expensive litigation or indemnification obligations, be required to enter into licenses, and may be prevented from selling existing products and pursuing product development or commercialization. Even if such claims are without merit, we may be required to expend significant time and resources on the defense of such claims. If we are unable to sufficiently protect our patent and other proprietary rights or if we infringe on or misappropriate proprietary rights of others, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows could be materially adversely affected. The theft or unauthorized use or publication of our intellectual property and/or technological know-how that is either not patentable or intentionally unpatented, including trade secrets, could adversely affect our competitive position and the value of certain of our investments in research and development.

We depend heavily on the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our IT and computerized systems to communicate and operate effectively. We store sensitive data, including proprietary business information, intellectual property, classified information, customer information, supplier information, and confidential employee or other personal data on our servers and databases. Also, due to political uncertainty and hostile military actions, we are subject to heightened risks of cybersecurity incidents and security breaches initiated by nation-state or affiliated actors. We and certain of our third-party providers have experienced cyberattacks on our IT infrastructure and systems. Given our industry, we expect continued targeting of cyberattacks, either directly against us or indirectly via our supply chain or third-party vendors, seeking unauthorized access to our data or our customers' data or to disrupt our operations or our ability to provide services. We face many ongoing cybersecurity threats, such as the loss, misuse, theft, unavailability, or unauthorized disclosure or other processing of information or assets (including source code), or damage to or other compromise of systems, components, and other IT assets, including the introduction of malicious code or other vulnerabilities by people who obtain unauthorized access to our facilities, systems, or information. There are many different techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to systems and data, and such techniques continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, including the increasing use by threat actors of artificial intelligence, and the adversaries are becoming more advanced, including nation-states and actors sponsored by or affiliated with nation-states, which target us and other defense contractors because we have national security information in our possession, and other actors with substantial financial and technological resources. These techniques include, but are not limited to, the use of malicious software, destructive malware, ransomware, denial-of-service attacks, phishing and other means of social engineering, and other means of causing system or network disruptions, obtaining unauthorized access to data or systems, or causing other cybersecurity breaches and incidents. Additionally, we are exposed to system and service disruptions, and cybersecurity breaches or incidents resulting from employee or contractor error, negligence, or malfeasance. Further, we expect continued cyberattacks directed at our supply chain. We face continued cybersecurity threats resulting from tools, services, or other third-party components and security vulnerabilities within, or introduced by, such tools, services, or components. Due to the rapidly evolving threat environment and other factors, we cannot guarantee protection against all such attacks. Further, due to the evolving nature of these security threats and the national security aspects of much of the data in our possession, the full impact of any future security breach or incident cannot be predicted. In addition, because certain of our products and services are integrated with our customers' systems and processes, the circumvention or failure of our cybersecurity measures may compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our customers' systems or data. We have acquired and continue to acquire companies with vulnerabilities or unsophisticated security measures, which exposes us to cybersecurity risks. We and our third-party partners have implemented various security measures, but our IT infrastructure, systems, networks, products, solutions, and services remain vulnerable to numerous additional known and unknown threats. We cannot guarantee that the measures we have implemented to prevent, detect, and respond to malicious activities will be effective or sufficient to prevent a cyberattack or other means of effecting cybersecurity breaches or incidents. For example, given the nature of complex systems like ours and the scanning tools that we deploy in our IT environment, we regularly identify and track known security vulnerabilities; however, we cannot guarantee that patches or mitigating measures will be implemented before any vulnerabilities can be exploited by a threat actor. If any of our IT infrastructure or systems are damaged, disrupted, or are otherwise impacted by security breaches or incidents, whether from cybersecurity attacks or other causes, or if we suffer any security breach or incident involving unauthorized access to, misuse, acquisition, disclosure, loss, alteration, or destruction of our data or other data we maintain or otherwise process, we could experience significant operational stoppages, disruptions, delays, and/or other detrimental impacts on our operations or investment in research, and may face increased costs, including increased costs of implementing new data protection and security measures, policies, and procedures, and costs associated with remediating and otherwise responding to the security breach or incident. Any such security breach or incident or the perception that it has occurred, also may result in reputational damage and increased operational costs, regulatory investigations,proceedings, and orders, litigation or other demands, indemnity obligations, damages for contract breach, fines or penalties relating to actual or alleged violation of applicable laws, regulations, or contractual obligations, incentives offered to customers or other business partners in an effort to maintain business relationships, and other costs and liabilities. Such impacts could result in diminished competitive advantages and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Further, any unauthorized disclosure, use, or acquisition of our intellectual property and/or confidential business information could harm our competitive position, result in a loss of intellectual property protection, and otherwise reduce the value of our investment in research and development and other strategic initiatives or otherwise adversely affect our business. Our insurance coverage may not be sufficient to compensate for all liability relating to any actual or potential disruption or other security breach or incident. We cannot be certain that our coverage will be adequate for liabilities actually incurred, that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all, or that any insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could have a material adverse effect on our business, including our financial condition, operating results, and reputation.

We are currently involved or may become involved in legal, regulatory, and other proceedings. These proceedings may include, without limitation, product liability matters, intellectual property matters, contract disputes or claims, pending or threatened litigation, and governmental investigations, as well as employment, tax, environmental, or other matters. These proceedings could lead to enforcement actions, adverse changes to our business practices, fines and penalties, business remedies, or the assertion of private litigation claims and/or damages that could be material, and of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Even if the legal proceedings we face are decided in our favor, or are unfounded, we may incur material expenses and such matters may require significant management attention, and may harm our reputation with customers, members or investors. We accrue for known individual matters if we believe it is probable that the matter will result in a loss when ultimately resolved using estimates of the most likely amount of loss. However, estimating possible losses involves significant judgment and outcomes are unpredictable, therefore, actual losses may exceed our estimates.

We are subject to income taxes in both the United States and jurisdictions outside of the United States. Our tax liabilities are dependent upon the distribution mix of operating income among these different jurisdictions. Our tax expense includes estimates of additional tax that may be incurred and reflects various estimates, projections, and assumptions that could impact the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities. Our future operating results could be adversely affected by changes in the effective tax rate, which could be caused by, among other things: - changes in the mix of earnings in countries with differing statutory tax rates;- changes in our overall profitability;- changes in rules or interpretations of existing tax laws;- changes in U.S. federal tax legislation and tax rates;- changes in state or non-U.S. government tax legislation and tax rates;- changes in tax incentives;- changes in U.S. GAAP;- changes in the projected realization of deferred tax assets and liabilities;- changes in management's assessment of the amount of earnings indefinitely reinvested offshore;- changes in management's intentions regarding the amount of earnings reinvested offshore;- the results of audits and examinations of previously filed tax returns and continuing assessments of our tax exposures; and - changes to global minimum taxes or other tax law changes The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ("OECD") has passed Pillar Two, an inclusive framework on Base Erosion and Profit Sharing, which would enact a minimum 15% tax for large multinational companies. Many countries are considering changes to their tax laws or proposing new tax laws to align with the recommendations that have been made by the OECD regarding Pillar Two. We are closely monitoring developments and evaluating the potential impacts of Pillar Two, which could adversely impact our effective tax rate, tax payments, results of operations, and cash flows.

We face intense competition from a number of established competitors in the United States and abroad, some of which are larger in size or are divisions of large, diversified companies with substantially greater financial resources. In addition, global competition continues to increase. Changes in competitive conditions, including the availability of new technologies, products and services, the introduction of new channels of distribution, changes in OEM and services pricing, and further consolidation of companies in our industries, could impact our relationships with our customers and may adversely affect future sales and margins, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Our products and services are technologically complex and require significant capital commitments. Prospective customers generally must commit significant resources to test and evaluate our products and to install and integrate them into larger systems. Accordingly, customers often require a significant number of product presentations and demonstrations before reaching a sufficient level of confidence in the product's performance and compatibility to commit to an order. In addition, orders expected in one quarter may shift, and from time to time have shifted, to another quarter or be cancelled with little advance notice as a result of customers' budgetary constraints, internal acceptance reviews, and other factors affecting the timing of customers' purchase decisions. The difficulty in forecasting demand increases the challenge in anticipating sales cycles and our inventory requirements, which may cause us to over-produce finished goods and could result in inventory write-offs, or could cause us to under-produce finished goods. Any such over-production or under-production could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Sales made directly to U.S. Government agencies and entities, or indirectly through third-party manufacturers, such as tier-one prime contractors utilizing our parts and subassemblies, accounted for approximately 20% of total sales in fiscal year 2025 and 17% in fiscal year 2024. The U.S. Government participates in a wide variety of operations, including homeland defense, counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and other defense-related operations that employ our products and services. U.S. defense spending has historically been cyclical in nature and is subject to periodic congressional authorization and appropriation actions. The level of U.S. defense spending is hard to predict and may be impacted by numerous factors outside of our control such as changes in the perceived threat environment, prevailing U.S. foreign policy, changes in security, defense, and intelligence strategies and priorities, shifts in domestic and international spending, the macroeconomic environment, tax policy, budget deficits and competing budget priorities, and the political environment and future potential government shutdowns. Defense budgets tend to rise when perceived threats to national security increase the level of concern over the country's safety, but we can provide no assurance that an increase in defense spending will be allocated to programs that would benefit our business. Decreases in U.S. Government defense spending, changes in the spending allocation, and phase-outs or terminations of certain aerospace and defense programs on which we have content could have a material adverse effect on our sales unless they are offset by other aerospace and defense programs and opportunities. If the priorities of the U.S. Government change and/or defense spending is reduced or delayed for any of the reasons discussed above, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows may be adversely affected.

In fiscal year 2025, approximately 46% of our total sales were made to customers in jurisdictions outside of the United States (including products manufactured in the United States and sold outside the United States as well as products manufactured in international locations). We also purchase raw materials and components from suppliers outside the United States. Accordingly, our business and results of operations are subject to risks associated with doing business internationally, including: - transportation delays and interruptions;- political, social and economic conditions, instability and disruptions;- natural disasters or pandemics;- terrorism, war, and international tensions and conflicts;- the imposition of taxes, import and export controls, duties and tariffs, embargoes, sanctions and other trade restrictions;- fluctuations in currency exchange rates;- different and changing regulatory environments;- cost of compliance with increasingly complex and often conflicting regulations governing various matters worldwide;- cost of labor, labor shortages, and other changes in labor conditions;- the potential for nationalization of enterprises;- potential limitations on the Company's ability to enforce legal rights and remedies, including protection of intellectual property;- difficulty of enforcing agreements and collecting receivables through some foreign legal systems;- potentially adverse tax consequences, including limitations on repatriations of earnings; and - difficulties in implementing restructuring actions on a timely basis. The United States and other countries have levied tariffs and taxes on certain goods, including during our fiscal year 2025. Some of our products are included in these tariffs, and certain commodities, raw materials, and other manufacturing inputs that we require are also included. The imposition of new or increased tariffs, duties, border adjustment taxes, or other trade restrictions by the United States could also result in the adoption of new or increased tariffs or other trade restrictions by other countries. While we have so far experienced minimal levels of cost pressure as a result of the recently implemented tariffs, future tariffs could increase our cost of materials, which could pressure our profitability if we are unable to secure commensurate price increases from our customers, or if the price increases we secure are not sufficient to fully offset the impact of the tariffs. The trade barriers implemented by the U.S. or other countries could have a significant adverse impact on our suppliers, our customers, and our business. We are not able to predict future trade policy of the United States or any foreign countries in which we operate or purchase goods, or the terms of any renegotiated trade agreements, or their impact on our business. We are subject to and must comply with U.S. laws restricting or otherwise prohibiting companies from doing business in certain countries and with certain parties, including those on exports imposed under the U.S. Export Control Laws and Sanctions Programs. These laws and regulations change from time to time and may restrict sales to other countries or parties. We are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") and similar anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws and regulations in other jurisdictions generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to government officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business or securing an improper business advantage. We operate in many parts of the world and sell to industries that have experienced corruption to some degree. If we are found to be liable for FCPA or other similar anti-bribery law or regulatory violations, we could be subject to civil and criminal penalties or other sanctions that could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Also, a material disruption to the financial institutions with whom we transact business could have a material adverse effect on our international operations or on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. We could be adversely affected if the financial institutions providing our capital refuse to honor their contractual commitments, cease lending, or declare bankruptcy.