Hardy Reed LLC Decreases Holdings in Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO)

Hardy Reed LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) by 8.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,648 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 358 shares during the quarter. Hardy Reed LLC’s holdings in Exponent were worth $325,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in EXPO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Exponent by 63.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 630,644 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $72,701,000 after purchasing an additional 245,086 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Exponent in the third quarter worth about $11,261,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Exponent by 4.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,505,652 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $173,597,000 after buying an additional 69,099 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Exponent by 219.0% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 96,526 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $11,127,000 after buying an additional 66,263 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TimesSquare Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Exponent by 22.4% in the fourth quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC now owns 342,850 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $30,548,000 after buying an additional 62,760 shares in the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Exponent Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ:EXPO opened at $87.72 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $90.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $99.80. The company has a market cap of $4.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.38 and a beta of 0.71. Exponent, Inc. has a twelve month low of $75.81 and a twelve month high of $115.75.

Exponent (NASDAQ:EXPO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The business services provider reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.06. Exponent had a net margin of 19.52% and a return on equity of 27.27%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.41 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Exponent, Inc. will post 1.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Exponent Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Exponent’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. Exponent’s payout ratio is 52.83%.

Exponent Company 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.