Principal Financial Group Inc. Purchases Shares of 13,539 Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX)

Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 13,539 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,373,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Argan during the 2nd quarter worth $41,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Argan in the third quarter worth about $43,000. Copeland Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Argan in the third quarter valued at about $56,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Argan during the 2nd quarter valued at about $70,000. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new position in Argan during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $91,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

Argan Stock Up 4.0 %

Shares of NYSE AGX opened at $149.02 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $146.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $107.05. Argan, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $43.44 and a fifty-two week high of $165.33. The firm has a market cap of $2.02 billion, a PE ratio of 31.18 and a beta of 0.56.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The construction company reported $2.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.26 by $0.74. Argan had a net margin of 8.20% and a return on equity of 21.66%. The business had revenue of $257.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $225.60 million. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 56.9% on a year-over-year basis.

Argan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 23rd. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.01%. Argan’s payout ratio is 31.38%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Argan news, Director Rainer H. Bosselmann sold 4,598 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.01, for a total transaction of $602,383.98. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 236,745 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,015,962.45. This represents a 1.91 % 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, CEO David Hibbert Watson sold 10,000 shares of Argan stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,291 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,491,050.55. This trade represents a 16.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 24,703 shares of company stock worth $3,377,544. Corporate insiders own 11.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Lake Street Capital lowered shares of Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the company from $85.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, CJS Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of Argan in a report on Friday, December 6th.

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.