Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) Receives $470.40 Average PT from Brokerages

Shares of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $470.40.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Argan from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $550.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Lake Street Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Argan from $375.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Argan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 28th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Argan in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Argan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th.

Insider Transactions at Argan

In other Argan news, Director William F. Leimkuhler sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $617.41, for a total value of $3,087,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 36,495 shares in the company, valued at $22,532,377.95. This represents a 12.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Chairman William F. Griffin, Jr. sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chairman directly owned 90,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $58,539,416.96. This represents a 35.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 134,105 shares of company stock worth $91,724,081. 2.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AGX. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Argan by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 827,482 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $259,267,000 after purchasing an additional 3,068 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Argan by 32.1% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 791,353 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $431,010,000 after buying an additional 192,204 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in shares of Argan by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 610,899 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $332,726,000 after buying an additional 12,300 shares during the last quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Argan by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 464,759 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $253,131,000 after buying an additional 25,901 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Argan by 25.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 400,379 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $125,462,000 after acquiring an additional 80,415 shares during the period. 79.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Argan Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AGX opened at $601.55 on Friday. Argan has a fifty-two week low of $197.00 and a fifty-two week high of $805.75. The stock has a market cap of $8.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.86 and a beta of 0.57. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $671.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $549.49.

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 firm had revenue of $290.95 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $256.03 million. Argan had a return on equity of 36.89% and a net margin of 15.48%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 50.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.60 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Argan will post 12.6 EPS for the current year.

Argan declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, April 8th that permits the company to buyback $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the construction company to reacquire up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Argan Announces Dividend

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

About Argan

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.