Legal & General Group Plc Takes Position in Argan, Inc. $AGX

Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in shares of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 31,310 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,003,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AGX. Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in Argan by 12.2% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 117,805 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $15,452,000 after purchasing an additional 12,854 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Argan by 118.3% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 5,316 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $697,000 after buying an additional 2,881 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake in shares of Argan by 13.4% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 35,567 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $4,665,000 after buying an additional 4,196 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Argan by 37.3% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 8,985 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,179,000 after buying an additional 2,442 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new stake in shares of Argan in the 2nd quarter worth about $286,000. 79.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO David Hibbert Watson sold 9,993 shares of Argan stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $651.22, for a total value of $6,507,641.46. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 40,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,052,056.10. The trade was a 19.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John Ronald Jr. Jeffrey sold 5,716 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $579.64, for a total value of $3,313,222.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,468,228.12. The trade was a 69.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 127,973 shares of company stock worth $87,554,828 in the last three months. 2.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Argan Price Performance

Argan stock opened at $419.92 on Friday. Argan, Inc. has a 12-month low of $197.00 and a 12-month high of $805.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.90 and a beta of 0.61. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $606.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $582.92.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $256.03 million. Argan had a net margin of 15.48% and a return on equity of 36.89%. The company’s revenue was up 50.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.60 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Argan, Inc. will post 12.6 EPS for the current year.

Argan Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 22nd. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Argan from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Argan from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, 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 research note on Friday, June 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Argan presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $470.40.

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.