Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO)

Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) by 0.9% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,776,034 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 26,595 shares during the period. Exponent makes up about 3.4% of Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.05% of Exponent worth $225,025,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in EXPO. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Exponent by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,345,503 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $476,284,000 after purchasing an additional 67,296 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Exponent by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,519,584 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $135,419,000 after buying an additional 13,932 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Exponent by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,188,373 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $105,884,000 after buying an additional 13,263 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Exponent by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 770,270 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $68,631,000 after buying an additional 53,227 shares during the period. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its stake in Exponent by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 739,710 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $65,908,000 after buying an additional 4,704 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Exponent news, VP Joseph Rakow sold 1,573 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.72, for a total value of $122,253.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Bradley A. James sold 2,694 shares of Exponent stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.52, for a total value of $214,226.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 6,267 shares of company stock valued at $489,120. 1.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Exponent Price Performance

Shares of EXPO opened at $75.81 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.85 billion, a PE ratio of 35.76 and a beta of 0.92. Exponent, Inc. has a one year low of $73.37 and a one year high of $115.75. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $77.93 and its 200 day moving average price is $84.47.

Exponent (NASDAQ:EXPO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.04. Exponent had a return on equity of 27.27% and a net margin of 19.52%. The business had revenue of $137.44 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $134.63 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.59 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Exponent, Inc. will post 1.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Exponent Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 6th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. Exponent’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.54%.

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.