Empowered Funds LLC Acquires Shares of 11,884 Argan, Inc. $AGX

Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 11,884 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,490,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Argan in the second quarter valued at about $1,764,086,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Argan by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 827,482 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $259,267,000 after buying an additional 3,068 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Argan by 32.1% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 791,353 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $431,010,000 after buying an additional 192,204 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Argan by 2.1% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 610,899 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $332,726,000 after buying an additional 12,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maverick Capital Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Argan by 5.9% in the first quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 464,759 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $253,131,000 after acquiring an additional 25,901 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Argan

In other Argan news, Chairman William F. Griffin, Jr. sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $643.46, for a total transaction of $32,173,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman owned 90,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $58,539,416.96. The trade was a 35.47% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Peter W. Getsinger sold 4,728 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $708.65, for a total value of $3,350,497.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,880 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,875,512. This trade represents a 40.73% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 127,973 shares of company stock valued at $87,554,828. 2.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AGX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings raised Argan from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Thursday. Lake Street Capital lifted their price objective on Argan from $375.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Wall Street Zen lowered Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 22nd. Finally, Zacks Research cut Argan from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $470.40.

Argan Stock Performance

NYSE:AGX opened at $419.92 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $5.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.90 and a beta of 0.61. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $606.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $582.92. Argan, Inc. has a 52-week low of $197.00 and a 52-week high of $805.75.

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

Argan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 23rd were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 23rd. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. Argan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.57%.

About Argan

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.