CW Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Argan, Inc. $AGX

CW Advisors LLC bought a new position in Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 10,070 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,220,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Argan by 9.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 926,168 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $121,485,000 after acquiring an additional 82,585 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Argan by 7.6% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 517,302 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $67,855,000 after purchasing an additional 36,644 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Argan by 3.9% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 314,453 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $69,339,000 after purchasing an additional 11,788 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Argan by 696.9% during the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 296,988 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $65,480,000 after buying an additional 259,720 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. increased its holdings in Argan by 1,142.2% in the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 188,665 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $41,597,000 after buying an additional 173,477 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

Argan Trading Down 12.4%

Shares of NYSE AGX opened at $312.29 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $315.23 and a 200 day moving average of $255.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.78 and a beta of 0.60. Argan, Inc. has a 12-month low of $101.02 and a 12-month high of $399.30.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 4th. The construction company reported $2.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.35. Argan had a net margin of 13.11% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The business had revenue of $251.15 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $251.50 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.00 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis.

Argan Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 31st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 23rd were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. This is a boost from Argan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 23rd. Argan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.56%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Argan

In other Argan news, CEO David Hibbert Watson sold 4,441 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.01, for a total value of $1,230,201.41. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 47,691 shares in the company, valued at $13,210,883.91. This represents a 8.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Peter W. Getsinger sold 6,493 shares of Argan stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $294.39, for a total value of $1,911,474.27. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 9,897 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,913,577.83. The trade was a 39.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 106,795 shares of company stock valued at $29,401,111 in the last ninety days. 6.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on AGX shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Argan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Zacks Research cut shares of Argan from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 12th. UBS Group set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Argan in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Glj Research raised shares of Argan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $251.00 to $369.00 in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Lake Street Capital lowered shares of Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $260.00 to $325.00 in a research note on Friday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $355.20.

About Argan

Argan, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, maintenance, project development, and technical consulting services to the power generation market. The company operates through Power Services, Industrial Services, and Telecom Services segments. The Power Services segment offers engineering, procurement, and construction, as well as designing, building, and commissioning of large-scale energy projects to the owners of alternative energy facilities, such as biomass plants, wind farms, and solar fields; and design, construction, project management, start-up, and operation services for projects with approximately 18 gigawatts of power-generating capacity.