Fifth Third Bancorp Boosts Stock Position in Exponent, Inc. $EXPO

Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its stake in Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) by 4,466.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 280,639 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 274,493 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Exponent were worth $18,312,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EXPO. Bell Investment Advisors Inc boosted its stake in Exponent by 423.6% during the first quarter. Bell Investment Advisors Inc now owns 377 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 305 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in shares of Exponent by 86.1% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 469 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Exponent by 50.4% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 576 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Exponent by 129.0% during the 4th quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 907 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 511 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of Exponent by 54.8% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 904 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 320 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Exponent Stock Performance

Shares of Exponent stock opened at $63.59 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $58.80 and a 200 day moving average of $66.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.58 and a beta of 0.72. Exponent, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $51.91 and a fifty-two week high of $81.95.

Exponent (NASDAQ:EXPO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The business services provider reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.03. Exponent had a return on equity of 27.94% and a net margin of 18.07%.The company had revenue of $166.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $149.53 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.52 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Exponent, Inc. will post 2.28 EPS for the current year.

Exponent Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 18th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. Exponent’s payout ratio is 57.67%.

Insider Activity at Exponent

In other news, VP Joseph Rakow sold 2,945 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.66, for a total value of $160,973.70. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Catherine Corrigan sold 4,119 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.13, for a total transaction of $235,318.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 106,670 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,094,057.10. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 19,233 shares of company stock valued at $1,119,659 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on EXPO. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Exponent in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Exponent from $95.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Exponent in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.50.

Exponent Profile

Exponent, Inc (NASDAQ: EXPO) is an engineering and scientific consulting firm that offers multidisciplinary analysis and advisory services to clients across a range of industries. The company’s expertise spans mechanical, materials and corrosion engineering, civil and structural engineering, electrical engineering, industrial hygiene, toxicology and health sciences, and failure analysis. Exponent provides support for product design, performance evaluation, litigation consulting, and regulatory compliance, helping manufacturers, insurers, law firms and government agencies address complex technical challenges.

Founded in 1967 in Menlo Park, California, Exponent has grown from a small failure-analysis laboratory into a global consulting practice.