Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. Acquires 361 Shares of Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO)

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. lifted its holdings in Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) by 70.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 873 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 361 shares during the quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in Exponent were worth $83,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bamco Inc. NY bought a new stake in Exponent in the first quarter worth $25,904,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Exponent by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,286,652 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $437,153,000 after acquiring an additional 291,047 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado boosted its holdings in Exponent by 1,383.4% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 261,007 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $22,979,000 after acquiring an additional 243,412 shares during the period. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Exponent by 9.6% during the 1st quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,687,351 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $222,217,000 after acquiring an additional 236,050 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in Exponent during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $22,050,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Exponent news, VP John Pye sold 3,956 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.00, for a total value of $415,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 28,422 shares in the company, valued at $2,984,310. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 2.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective (up previously from $100.00) on shares of Exponent in a research report on Friday, July 26th.

Exponent Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of EXPO opened at $113.25 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $106.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $95.69. Exponent, Inc. has a twelve month low of $64.61 and a twelve month high of $114.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.20 and a beta of 0.66.

Exponent (NASDAQ:EXPO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The business services provider reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.07. Exponent had a net margin of 19.35% and a return on equity of 28.39%. The company had revenue of $132.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $130.83 million. Exponent’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.50 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Exponent, Inc. will post 2.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Exponent Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 6th were given a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.99%. Exponent’s dividend payout ratio is 56.57%.

Exponent Profile

Exponent, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a science and engineering consulting company in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Engineering and Other Scientific, and Environmental and Health. The Engineering and Other Scientific segment provides services in the areas of biomechanics, biomedical engineering and sciences, buildings and structures, civil engineering, construction consulting, data sciences, electrical engineering and computer science, human factors, materials and corrosion engineering, mechanical engineering, polymer science and materials chemistry, thermal sciences, and vehicle engineering.