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

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. lifted its position in Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) by 70.5% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 873 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 361 shares during the period. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in Exponent were worth $83,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in EXPO. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Exponent by 67.7% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 379 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its holdings in Exponent by 166.5% in the 2nd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 517 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $49,000 after buying an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Exponent by 293.7% in the 1st quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 626 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 467 shares during the last quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Exponent during the 1st quarter valued at about $75,000. Finally, Natixis Investment Managers International boosted its holdings in shares of Exponent by 18.5% during the 1st quarter. Natixis Investment Managers International now owns 1,138 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $94,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP John Pye sold 3,956 shares of Exponent stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.00, for a total transaction of $415,380.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 28,422 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,984,310. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 2.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Exponent Stock Performance

Exponent stock opened at $113.25 on Friday. Exponent, Inc. has a one year low of $64.61 and a one year high of $114.67. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $106.22 and a 200 day moving average of $95.69. The stock has a market cap of $5.74 billion, a PE ratio of 57.20 and a beta of 0.66.

Exponent (NASDAQ:EXPO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The business services provider reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $130.83 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.50 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Exponent, Inc. will post 2.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Exponent Dividend Announcement

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

About Exponent

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.