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We just lately printed a listing of the 10 Neglected Dividend Shares to Purchase Now. On this article, we’re going to try the place Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) stands in opposition to different ignored dividend shares.
In current occasions, dividend investing—also called fairness revenue—has fallen out of favor. As soon as a extensively adopted and reliable technique, it has step by step been overshadowed. The robust capital good points delivered by progress shares seem to have shifted buyers’ consideration away from the extra steady and constant returns that include dividend-paying shares.
Nevertheless, the current market downturn, mixed with the financial affect of Trump’s commerce insurance policies, has introduced renewed consideration and enchantment to these kind of shares. The S&P Dividend Aristocrats Index, which tracks the efficiency of corporations with not less than 25 consecutive years of dividend progress, has fallen by somewhat over 2% for the reason that begin of 2025, in contrast with a 6% fall within the broader market.
Dividend shares have seen blended outcomes over completely different financial cycles—performing effectively in some downturns and falling behind in others. They often outpaced the broader market in the course of the recessions beginning in July 1981, March 2001, and December 2007. Nevertheless, their efficiency lagged in the course of the shorter recessions in 1980 and 2020. This was primarily resulting from dividend cuts from main corporations, together with restricted publicity to fast-growing tech names. For context, the steepest drop in dividends got here in the course of the 2008–09 monetary disaster, when S&P dividend payouts declined by 24%, although buyers nonetheless obtained 76% of their revenue.
That stated, whereas the potential for dividend reductions is a sound concern and a possible disadvantage of this technique, it shouldn’t be a motive to miss dividend shares altogether. When included thoughtfully, they will nonetheless play a beneficial position in a well-rounded funding portfolio.
M&G Investments famous that dividends function extra than simply revenue—in addition they sign an organization’s monetary well being and administration’s confidence. Whereas short-term market returns typically hinge on inventory valuations, dividends play a way more substantial position in driving fairness returns over longer intervals, comparable to 10 or 20 years. The report additionally talked about, citing Bloomberg’s information, that dividends play a significant position in long-term returns. Over the past 25 years, practically half of the whole good points from US shares have come from reinvested dividends and the facility of compounding. Throughout this era, the broader market delivered a median annual return of seven.4%, with 55% attributed to rising inventory costs and the remaining 45% coming from reinvested dividend revenue.
The truth that dividends will not be assured highlights a deeper monetary story behind company selections. Corporations should rigorously weigh the trade-off between returning earnings to shareholders and holding sufficient earnings available to assist future enlargement. Getting this steadiness proper is a strategic process.
A very excessive dividend payout ratio—usually above 75%, although this varies by sector—can increase crimson flags about sustainability. When an excessive amount of revenue is paid out, there’s little room left to extend dividends down the road. This might finally lead an organization to reduce and even cease its dividend funds altogether, which can maintain again each enterprise progress and long-term good points in share worth. Given this, we’ll check out some ignored shares that pay dividends.
Exponent, Inc. (EXPO): Among the many Neglected Dividend Shares to Purchase Now
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For this record, we completely reviewed respected sources comparable to Forbes, Morningstar, Barron’s, and Enterprise Insider and looked for shares that stay beneath the radar however have robust steadiness sheets and sound financials. As well as, these lesser-known dividend corporations additionally boast dividend progress monitor information, which make them a dependable possibility for revenue buyers. After compiling our information, we picked 10 corporations with the best variety of hedge fund buyers, as per Insider Monkey’s This fall 2024 database.
Why are we within the shares that hedge funds pile into? The reason being easy: our analysis has proven that we will outperform the market by imitating the highest inventory picks of the most effective hedge funds. Our quarterly publication’s technique selects 14 small-cap and large-cap shares each quarter and has returned 373.4% since Could 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 share factors (see extra particulars right here).
Variety of Hedge Fund Holders: 21
Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) is a California-based world engineering and expertise consulting firm that gives specialised data throughout roughly 90 technical fields to purchasers worldwide. The corporate’s outcomes got here in robust within the fourth quarter of 2025. Its income got here in at $123.7 million, which confirmed a 9% progress on a YoY foundation and likewise beat analysts’ estimates by $4.17 million. The corporate’s web revenue got here in at $23.6 million, up from $20.9 million within the prior-year interval. EBITDA1 rose to $31.2 million, representing 25.2% of revenues earlier than reimbursements, up from $30.5 million, or 26.8% of revenues earlier than reimbursements, throughout the identical interval in 2023.
Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) additionally demonstrated a robust money place. The corporate ended the quarter with practically $259 million out there in money and money equivalents, up from $187 million in 2023. In FY24, it returned $58.3 million to shareholders by means of dividends. At the moment, it presents a quarterly dividend of $0.30 per share, having raised it by 7.1% in February. By way of this enhance, the corporate stretched its dividend progress streak to 12 years, which makes EXPO probably the greatest ignored shares that pay dividends. As of April 25, the inventory has a dividend yield of 1.52%.
On the finish of This fall 2024, 21 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey reported having stakes in Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO), up from 19 within the earlier quarter. The general worth of those stakes is over $174.4 million. Amongst these hedge funds, Fundsmith LLP was the corporate’s main stakeholder in This fall.
Total, EXPO ranks ninth on our record of the most effective ignored dividend shares to spend money on. Whereas we acknowledge the potential of EXPO as an funding, our conviction lies within the perception that some deeply undervalued dividend shares maintain better promise for delivering increased returns, and doing so inside a shorter timeframe. If you’re in search of a deeply undervalued dividend inventory that’s extra promising than EXPO however that trades at 10 occasions its earnings and grows its earnings at double digit charges yearly, take a look at our report concerning the grime low-cost dividend inventory.