Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 132,201 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 780 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.26% of Exponent worth $11,779,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of EXPO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Exponent by 63.6% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 630,644 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $72,701,000 after buying an additional 245,086 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Exponent in the 3rd quarter valued at about $11,261,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 69,099 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Exponent by 219.0% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 96,526 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $11,127,000 after acquiring an additional 66,263 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TimesSquare Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Exponent by 21.1% during the third quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC now owns 280,090 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $32,289,000 after acquiring an additional 48,859 shares during the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Richard Reiss sold 1,736 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.93, for a total value of $149,174.48. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $154,674. This represents a 49.10 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Exponent Price Performance

NASDAQ:EXPO opened at $85.60 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.38 and a beta of 0.71. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $89.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $99.09. Exponent, Inc. has a 1 year low of $77.21 and a 1 year high of $115.75.

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

Exponent Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Exponent’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. Exponent’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.60%.

About Exponent

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.