Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently.
To the average investor, there are a multitude of indicators investors can use to track the equity markets. A duo of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can trounce the market by a solid margin (see just how much).
Just as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the world of equities. There are lots of motivations for an insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).
Consequently, we’re going to take a glance at the recent action encompassing Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO).
How have hedgies been trading Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO)?
At year’s end, a total of 4 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -33% from the third quarter.
Because Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) has witnessed a declination in interest from the smart money, we can see that there were a few fund managers that elected to cut their positions entirely at the end of the year. At the top of the heap, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management dumped the biggest investment of all the hedgies we key on, comprising close to $1.2 million in stock., and Mike Vranos of Ellington was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.3 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds at the end of the year.
How are insiders trading Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time period, Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) has seen 1 unique insiders purchasing, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO). These stocks are Resources Connection, Inc. (NASDAQ:RECN), ICF International Inc (NASDAQ:ICFI), Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN), Wageworks Inc (NYSE:WAGE), and Navigant Consulting, Inc. (NYSE:NCI). This group of stocks are the members of the management services industry and their market caps resemble EXPO’s market cap.
Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
Resources Connection, Inc. (NASDAQ:RECN) | 13 | 0 | 2 |
ICF International Inc (NASDAQ:ICFI) | 9 | 0 | 1 |
Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN) | 7 | 1 | 5 |
Wageworks Inc (NYSE:WAGE) | 9 | 1 | 8 |
Navigant Consulting, Inc. (NYSE:NCI) | 11 | 0 | 3 |
With the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s tactics, everyday investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.