Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Takes Position in Argan, Inc. $AGX

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 6,200 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,377,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in AGX. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in Argan by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 541 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $170,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in shares of Argan by 26.7% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 147 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Argan by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,564 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $803,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Ring Mountain Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Argan by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ring Mountain Capital LLC now owns 2,735 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $739,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Spirepoint Private Client LLC raised its position in shares of Argan by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Spirepoint Private Client LLC now owns 1,231 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $386,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. 79.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on AGX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Argan from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $550.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, March 27th. Lake Street Capital boosted their price objective on Argan from $375.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Argan from $399.00 to $518.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 27th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Argan in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Argan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Argan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $470.40.

Insider Activity at Argan

In other news, CEO David Hibbert Watson sold 19,310 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $602.11, for a total value of $11,626,744.10. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 49,998 shares in the company, valued at $30,104,295.78. This represents a 27.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Peter W. Getsinger sold 4,728 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $708.65, for a total transaction of $3,350,497.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 6,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,875,512. This trade represents a 40.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 186,800 shares of company stock worth $123,296,561. Company insiders own 6.69% of the company’s stock.

Argan Stock Up 1.5%

AGX opened at $764.06 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 67.14 and a beta of 0.58. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $674.70 and a 200-day moving average of $503.48. Argan, Inc. has a 12-month low of $196.90 and a 12-month high of $791.38.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The construction company reported $3.24 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.31 by $0.93. The business had revenue of $290.95 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $256.03 million. Argan had a return on equity of 36.89% and a net margin of 15.48%.Argan’s revenue for the quarter was up 50.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.60 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Argan, Inc. will post 12.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Argan Dividend Announcement

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

Argan announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, April 8th that authorizes the company to buyback $200.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the construction company to buy up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.