Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) Short Interest Update

Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 573,000 shares, a growth of 22.1% from the November 30th total of 469,200 shares. Currently, 4.4% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 309,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.9 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AGX. CJS Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $150.00 price objective on shares of Argan in a research report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Lake Street Capital downgraded shares of Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd.

Argan Trading Down 1.4 %

AGX traded down $1.88 on Tuesday, hitting $137.04. 272,680 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 183,478. Argan has a one year low of $43.44 and a one year high of $165.33. The firm has a market cap of $1.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.67 and a beta of 0.53. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $144.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.66.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last posted 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. Argan had a net margin of 8.20% and a return on equity of 21.66%. The company had revenue of $257.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $225.60 million. The firm’s revenue was up 56.9% compared to the same quarter last year.

Argan Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Thursday, January 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.375 per share. This represents a $1.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 23rd. Argan’s payout ratio is presently 31.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO David Hibbert Watson sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.05, for a total transaction of $1,460,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,291 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,491,050.55. The trade was a 16.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Rainer H. Bosselmann sold 4,598 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.01, for a total transaction of $602,383.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 236,745 shares in the company, valued at $31,015,962.45. The trade was a 1.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 24,703 shares of company stock valued at $3,377,544. Company insiders own 11.85% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Argan

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AGX. Entropy Technologies LP lifted its holdings 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 valued at $721,000 after acquiring an additional 3,699 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in 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 buying an additional 5,430 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in 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 buying an additional 16,055 shares during the period. Penn Mutual Asset Management increased its position in Argan by 195.6% during the third quarter. Penn Mutual Asset Management now owns 10,050 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,019,000 after acquiring an additional 6,650 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Saturna Capital Corp bought a new stake in shares of Argan in the 3rd quarter worth about $395,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

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.