95,500 Shares in Argan, Inc. $AGX Acquired by Sculptor Capital LP

Sculptor Capital LP bought a new position in Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 95,500 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $76,262,000. Sculptor Capital LP owned 0.68% of Argan at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Argan in the second quarter valued at about $1,764,086,000. M&T Bank Corp bought a new stake in shares of Argan during the 4th quarter valued at about $478,000. Covenant Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Argan during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,748,000. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Argan during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,728,000. Finally, Thames Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Argan by 25.2% during the 4th quarter. Thames Capital Management LLC now owns 51,794 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $16,228,000 after purchasing an additional 10,411 shares during the last quarter. 79.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AGX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Lake Street Capital raised 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. Zacks Research cut shares of Argan from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Argan from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Argan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $470.40.

Argan Stock Down 4.0%

Shares of AGX opened at $450.21 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $624.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $582.53. The stock has a market cap of $6.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.56 and a beta of 0.61. Argan, Inc. has a 52 week low of $197.00 and a 52 week high of $805.75.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 4th. The construction company reported $3.24 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $256.03 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.60 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 50.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Argan, Inc. will post 12.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Argan Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 23rd. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Argan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.57%.

Insider Activity at Argan

In other Argan news, CFO Joshua Scott Baugher sold 760 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $733.30, for a total value of $557,308.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 1,479 shares in the company, valued at $1,084,550.70. This represents a 33.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John Ronald Jr. Jeffrey sold 5,716 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $579.64, for a total transaction of $3,313,222.24. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,468,228.12. This trade represents a 69.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 127,973 shares of company stock worth $87,554,828 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 2.99% of the company’s stock.

Argan Company 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.