Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) Shares Sold by Wesbanco Bank Inc.

Wesbanco Bank Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) by 17.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 16,000 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 3,274 shares during the period. Wesbanco Bank Inc.’s holdings in Argan were worth $2,193,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AGX. Entropy Technologies LP grew its stake in shares of Argan by 108.6% in the 3rd quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 7,104 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $721,000 after purchasing an additional 3,699 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Argan by 76.2% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 12,552 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $918,000 after acquiring an additional 5,430 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Argan by 70.8% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 37,819 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $3,836,000 after acquiring an additional 15,681 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Argan in the 3rd quarter worth $1,373,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Argan by 4.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 353,984 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $35,905,000 after purchasing an additional 16,055 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AGX. StockNews.com cut Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Lake Street Capital downgraded shares of Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, CJS Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $150.00 price target on shares of Argan in a report on Friday, December 6th.

Argan Trading Down 5.0 %

Shares of AGX stock opened at $174.79 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.57 and a beta of 0.56. Argan, Inc. has a 1-year low of $43.44 and a 1-year high of $191.46. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $151.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $115.75.

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

Argan Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd will be paid a $0.375 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 23rd. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.86%. Argan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Peter W. Getsinger sold 7,385 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.29, for a total value of $1,220,666.65. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,949,099.68. This represents a 38.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Richard H. Deily sold 2,000 shares of Argan stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total value 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. The trade was a 17.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,185 shares of company stock worth $3,105,359 in the last quarter. 11.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.