Exponent (NASDAQ:EXPO) Stock Crosses Above Two Hundred Day Moving Average – What’s Next?

Shares of Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $64.36 and traded as high as $70.21. Exponent shares last traded at $69.19, with a volume of 476,194 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group set a $72.00 price target on shares of Exponent and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Exponent from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Exponent in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.00.

Exponent Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $3.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.69 and a beta of 0.68. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $66.54 and its 200-day moving average is $64.34.

Exponent (NASDAQ:EXPO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $171.61 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $144.99 million. Exponent had a return on equity of 31.48% and a net margin of 17.67%.The business’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.52 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Exponent, Inc. will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Exponent Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th will be paid a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. Exponent’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.61%.

Insider Activity at Exponent

In other news, CEO Catherine Corrigan sold 1,707 shares of Exponent stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.28, for a total value of $113,139.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,108 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,557,278.24. The trade was a 1.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exponent

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Tidal Investments LLC bought a new position in Exponent during the second quarter worth $522,000. WINTON GROUP Ltd boosted its holdings in Exponent by 20.0% in the 2nd quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 23,105 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,358,000 after purchasing an additional 3,856 shares during the period. Engineers Gate Manager LP boosted its holdings in Exponent by 66.7% in the 2nd quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 7,035 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $413,000 after purchasing an additional 2,815 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its position in Exponent by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 4,815 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $283,000 after purchasing an additional 339 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC grew its position in Exponent by 19.3% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 20,134 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,183,000 after purchasing an additional 3,263 shares during the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Exponent Company Profile

Exponent, Inc is a multidisciplinary engineering and scientific consulting company that helps clients investigate complex technical issues, manage risk and improve the safety, performance and reliability of products, systems and operations. Its work commonly involves failure analysis, accident reconstruction, product liability, materials and structures, biomechanics, environmental sciences and health, and human factors.

The company provides consulting, testing, research and expert-witness services to businesses, insurers, law firms and government agencies.