Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.30 Per Share

Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of 0.30 per share by the business services provider on Friday, March 21st. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Exponent’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28.

Exponent has increased its dividend by an average of 11.9% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 11 years. Exponent has a payout ratio of 49.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Exponent to earn $2.11 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 53.1%.

Exponent Trading Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ:EXPO opened at $90.90 on Friday. Exponent has a 52 week low of $74.30 and a 52 week high of $115.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.61 billion, a PE ratio of 43.91 and a beta of 0.71. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $91.98 and a 200-day moving average of $100.73.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.06. Exponent had a return on equity of 27.73% and a net margin of 19.52%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.41 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Exponent will post 2.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Exponent

In other Exponent news, Director Paul R. Johnston sold 1,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.03, for a total value of $123,539.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 59,406 shares in the company, valued at $5,645,352.18. This represents a 2.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders sold 15,300 shares of company stock worth $1,538,589 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.10% of the company’s stock.

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.