Carnegie Investment Counsel Increases Stock Position in Argan, Inc. $AGX

Carnegie Investment Counsel raised its stake in Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) by 28.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,245 shares of the construction company’s stock after acquiring an additional 951 shares during the period. Carnegie Investment Counsel’s holdings in Argan were worth $2,312,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Argan by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 541 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $170,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its position in shares of Argan by 26.7% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 147 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Argan by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,564 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $803,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Spirepoint Private Client LLC grew its stake in Argan by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Spirepoint Private Client LLC now owns 1,231 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $386,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Argan by 33.6% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 151 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Argan in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. 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 report on Friday, March 27th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Argan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Argan from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $550.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Lake Street Capital upped their price target on shares of Argan from $375.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $470.40.

Argan Stock Down 4.7%

NYSE AGX opened at $600.81 on Tuesday. Argan, Inc. has a 52-week low of $196.90 and a 52-week high of $805.75. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $689.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $534.23. The firm has a market cap of $8.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.80 and a beta of 0.57.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 4th. The construction company reported $3.24 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.31 by $0.93. Argan had a return on equity of 36.89% and a net margin of 15.48%.The firm had revenue of $290.95 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $256.03 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.60 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 50.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Argan, Inc. will post 12.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Argan Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 23rd will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 23rd. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Argan’s payout ratio is presently 17.57%.

Argan announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, April 8th that permits the company to repurchase $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the construction company to buy up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Peter W. Getsinger sold 4,728 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $708.65, for a total transaction of $3,350,497.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,880 shares in the company, valued at $4,875,512. This represents a 40.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director William F. Leimkuhler sold 5,000 shares of Argan stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $617.41, for a total transaction of $3,087,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 36,495 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,532,377.95. This trade represents a 12.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 171,219 shares of company stock valued at $114,356,759. 6.69% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Argan 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.