Exponent (NASDAQ:EXPO) Reaches New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $115.75 and last traded at $115.18, with a volume of 62308 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $113.79.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Exponent Stock Performance

The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $108.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $98.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.02 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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $132.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $130.83 million. Exponent had a net margin of 19.35% and a return on equity of 28.39%. Exponent’s revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.50 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Exponent, Inc. will post 2.04 EPS for the current year.

Exponent Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Exponent

In other news, VP John Pye sold 3,956 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,984,310. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 2.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Exponent

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in EXPO. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Exponent by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,995,605 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $439,813,000 after acquiring an additional 19,795 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Exponent by 56.9% in the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 3,847 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $339,000 after acquiring an additional 1,395 shares during the period. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Exponent in the 4th quarter worth approximately $262,000. Mather Group LLC. bought a new stake in shares of Exponent in the 1st quarter worth approximately $132,000. Finally, Bridge City Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Exponent by 24.9% in the 1st quarter. Bridge City Capital LLC now owns 35,299 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,919,000 after purchasing an additional 7,032 shares in the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.