Argan (NYSE:AGX) Stock Gets Downgrade from Wall Street Zen

Argan (NYSE:AGX) was downgraded by Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler began coverage on Argan in a research note on Tuesday, September 8th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $273.00 price objective for the company. Lake Street Capital raised shares of Argan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Zacks Research raised shares of Argan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Argan from $800.00 to $785.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Argan from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, September 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Argan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $476.67.

Argan Price Performance

Shares of Argan stock opened at $393.62 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $452.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $574.08. Argan has a 12 month low of $255.60 and a 12 month high of $805.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.14, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.56.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The construction company reported $3.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $1.12. The business had revenue of $383.98 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $300.53 million. Argan had a return on equity of 38.51% and a net margin of 15.09%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 61.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.50 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Argan will post 13.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Argan

In other news, Director John Jeffrey, Jr. sold 5,716 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $579.64, for a total value of $3,313,222.24. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,533 shares in the company, valued at $1,468,228.12. This represents a 69.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 2.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Argan

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AGX. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Argan in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,764,086,000. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Argan by 32.1% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 791,353 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $431,010,000 after acquiring an additional 192,204 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Argan during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $131,878,000. SurgoCap Partners LP purchased a new position in shares of Argan during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $119,769,000. Finally, Sculptor Capital LP purchased a new position in shares of Argan during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $76,262,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

About Argan

Argan, Inc (NYSE: AGX) is a holding company that provides engineering, procurement and construction services primarily to the power-generation and renewable-energy industries. Through its subsidiaries, the company supports the development and construction of energy infrastructure, including natural gas-fired power plants, renewable-energy facilities and related industrial projects.

Argan’s principal operating businesses include Gemma Power Systems, which provides project development, design, engineering, procurement, construction management, commissioning and operations support services.