Willdan Group (NASDAQ:WLDN) Shares Gap Down – Time to Sell?

Willdan Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:WLDN) shares gapped down before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $77.95, but opened at $72.58. Willdan Group shares last traded at $70.02, with a volume of 155,132 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WLDN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Zacks Research cut Willdan Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Compass Point set a $125.00 price objective on Willdan Group in a research note on Friday, January 2nd. Wedbush initiated coverage on Willdan Group in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $110.00 price objective on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut Willdan Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Willdan Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Willdan Group currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.67.

Willdan Group Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average of $84.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $99.58. The firm has a market cap of $1.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.90 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a quick ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Willdan Group (NASDAQ:WLDN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The construction company reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.78. Willdan Group had a return on equity of 23.34% and a net margin of 7.71%.The business had revenue of $89.51 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $174.50 million. Willdan Group has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.500-4.700 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Willdan Group, Inc. will post 3.88 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Steven A. Cohen sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.82, for a total transaction of $490,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 20,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,705,865.18. This trade represents a 22.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 8.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Willdan Group by 11.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,201,517 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $124,549,000 after purchasing an additional 126,247 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Willdan Group by 45.9% in the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 381,581 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $29,214,000 after purchasing an additional 120,110 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Willdan Group by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 343,000 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $35,561,000 after purchasing an additional 2,185 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Willdan Group by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 305,845 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $31,704,000 after purchasing an additional 6,523 shares during the period. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP boosted its position in shares of Willdan Group by 207.1% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 302,380 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $29,237,000 after purchasing an additional 203,912 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 72.29% of the company’s stock.

About Willdan Group

Willdan Group, Inc provides energy efficiency, infrastructure engineering, and technical consulting services to a diverse range of public and private sector clients. The company works with utilities, municipalities, state and federal agencies, and commercial enterprises to design, implement, and manage programs that promote sustainable energy use, grid modernization, and resilient infrastructure. Willdan’s offerings span program design and implementation, energy audits, measurement and verification, and project management for both new construction and retrofit initiatives.

Core services include energy advisory and engineering solutions, including feasibility studies, facility commissioning and retro-commissioning, $0 down financing for energy projects, and demand response program development.