Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC Acquires Shares of 200 Argan, Inc. $AGX

Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC acquired a new position in shares of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 200 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of AGX. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Argan by 1.2% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,756 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,067,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Argan in the first quarter valued at approximately $207,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Argan by 12.7% in the 1st quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,059 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $139,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Argan by 51.8% during the first quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,250 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $557,000 after purchasing an additional 1,450 shares during the period. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in Argan by 49.9% in the first quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 6,059 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $795,000 after buying an additional 2,017 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on AGX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Argan from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $220.00 to $315.00 in a report on Monday, October 13th. UBS Group set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Argan in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Argan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Argan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Lake Street Capital increased their price target on Argan from $236.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $258.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Argan news, Director Cynthia Flanders sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.96, for a total value of $4,079,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 16,428 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,467,758.88. This represents a 47.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Peter W. Getsinger sold 6,493 shares of Argan stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $294.39, for a total transaction of $1,911,474.27. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 9,897 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,913,577.83. This represents a 39.62% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 106,795 shares of company stock worth $29,401,111 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 6.69% of the company’s stock.

Argan Stock Performance

NYSE:AGX opened at $311.83 on Friday. Argan, Inc. has a 52 week low of $101.02 and a 52 week high of $331.01. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $268.69 and its 200-day moving average is $228.20. The firm has a market cap of $4.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.48 and a beta of 0.64.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 4th. The construction company reported $2.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.99 by $0.51. Argan had a return on equity of 32.61% and a net margin of 12.73%.The company had revenue of $237.74 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $243.97 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.31 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year.

Argan Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is an increase from Argan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 23rd. Argan’s dividend payout ratio is 24.04%.

Argan 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.