Argan (NYSE:AGX) Sets New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

Shares of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $173.82 and last traded at $170.03, with a volume of 89583 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $156.05.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AGX has been the topic of several analyst reports. CJS Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $150.00 price objective on shares of Argan in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com lowered Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Lake Street Capital cut shares of Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd.

Argan Trading Up 9.6 %

The company has a market cap of $2.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.80 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $148.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $110.85.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The construction company reported $2.00 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.26 by $0.74. The business had revenue of $257.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $225.60 million. Argan had a net margin of 8.20% and a return on equity of 21.66%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 56.9% compared to the same quarter last year.

Argan Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 23rd. This represents a $1.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.88%. Argan’s payout ratio is 31.38%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Richard H. Deily sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total transaction of $300,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 9,367 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,405,050. This represents a 17.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Rainer H. Bosselmann sold 10,105 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.10, for a total value of $1,314,660.50. Following the transaction, the director now owns 219,879 shares in the company, valued at $28,606,257.90. This represents a 4.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,703 shares of company stock valued at $3,677,544 over the last ninety days. 11.85% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Argan

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AGX. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Argan by 81.8% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 911,056 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $92,408,000 after purchasing an additional 409,948 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in shares of Argan by 7.7% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 537,296 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $39,309,000 after acquiring an additional 38,300 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Argan by 4.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 353,984 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $35,905,000 after acquiring an additional 16,055 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Argan by 31.8% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 305,298 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $22,336,000 after purchasing an additional 73,658 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Argan by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 287,246 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $29,141,000 after purchasing an additional 1,553 shares during the last quarter. 79.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Argan Company Profile

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.