Intech Investment Management LLC Makes New $339,000 Investment in Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX)

Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 3,344 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AGX. Entropy Technologies LP grew its holdings in shares of Argan by 108.6% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Argan by 76.2% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 12,552 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $918,000 after acquiring an additional 5,430 shares in the last quarter. Saturna Capital Corp bought a new position in shares of Argan in the third quarter valued at approximately $395,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Argan by 283.3% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 57,536 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $5,836,000 after acquiring an additional 42,527 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Argan by 279.4% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 13,635 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,383,000 after acquiring an additional 10,041 shares in the last quarter. 79.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on AGX. Lake Street Capital lowered Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the company from $85.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com downgraded Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th.

Argan Trading Down 4.0 %

Argan stock opened at $149.91 on Wednesday. Argan, Inc. has a 12 month low of $39.74 and a 12 month high of $165.33. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $132.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $95.90. The company has a market cap of $2.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.14 and a beta of 0.53.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 5th. The construction company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.34. The business had revenue of $227.02 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $191.05 million. Argan had a return on equity of 14.80% and a net margin of 6.11%. The company’s revenue was up 60.6% on a year-over-year basis.

Argan Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 23rd were given a dividend of $0.375 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 23rd. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.00%. This is an increase from Argan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. Argan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.17%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Rainer H. Bosselmann sold 10,105 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.10, for a total value of $1,314,660.50. Following the sale, the director now owns 219,879 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,606,257.90. This trade represents a 4.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Cynthia Flanders sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.39, for a total value of $481,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 17,332 shares in the company, valued at $1,670,631.48. This trade represents a 22.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 39,703 shares of company stock worth $4,257,794 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.85% of the company’s stock.

Argan 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.