Evolve Private Wealth LLC Purchases Shares of 784 Argan, Inc. $AGX

Evolve Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 784 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $427,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AGX. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Argan by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 827,482 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $259,267,000 after buying an additional 3,068 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in Argan by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 599,149 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $187,725,000 after purchasing an additional 39,683 shares in the last quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Argan during the fourth quarter worth $137,503,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Argan by 0.9% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 435,761 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $117,677,000 after purchasing an additional 4,027 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Argan by 25.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 400,379 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $125,462,000 after buying an additional 80,415 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AGX. Lake Street Capital upped their price target on shares of Argan from $375.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Argan in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Wall Street Zen raised Argan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Argan from $399.00 to $518.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Freedom Capital upgraded Argan to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $470.40.

Argan Price Performance

NYSE:AGX opened at $764.06 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.71 billion, a PE ratio of 67.14 and a beta of 0.58. Argan, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $196.90 and a fifty-two week high of $791.38. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $674.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $503.48.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 4th. The construction company reported $3.24 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.31 by $0.93. The business had revenue of $290.95 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $256.03 million. Argan had a net margin of 15.48% and a return on equity of 36.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 50.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.60 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Argan, Inc. will post 12.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Argan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 23rd. Argan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.57%.

Argan declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, April 8th that allows the company to buyback $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the construction company to reacquire up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Argan news, Director Peter W. Getsinger sold 4,728 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $708.65, for a total transaction of $3,350,497.20. Following the sale, the director directly owned 6,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,875,512. The trade was a 40.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Chairman William F. Griffin, Jr. sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $643.46, for a total value of $32,173,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman owned 90,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $58,539,416.96. The trade was a 35.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 186,800 shares of company stock valued at $123,296,561 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 6.69% of the company’s stock.

Argan Company Profile

Argan, Inc (NYSE: AGX) is a holding company that provides professional technical and management services to the power generation and renewable energy industries. Through its wholly owned subsidiaries, the company delivers engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM), commissioning and operations and maintenance (O&M) services for a broad range of energy facilities. Argan focuses on projects for utility, industrial and municipally owned clients, helping to bring efficient thermal and renewable energy plants into operation and maintain optimal performance over the asset life cycle.

The company’s principal subsidiaries include Gemma Power Systems, which specializes in turnkey construction of combined-cycle, simple-cycle, cogeneration and renewable energy plants; Atlantic Projects Company, which provides electrical balance-of-plant, control systems, instrumentation and commissioning services; and Infrastructure Solutions, which offers industrial maintenance, outage support and modification services.