Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) Director Sells $1,220,666.65 in Stock

Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) Director Peter W. Getsinger sold 7,385 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.29, for a total transaction of $1,220,666.65. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 11,792 shares in the company, valued at $1,949,099.68. The trade was a 38.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Argan Stock Up 7.4 %

AGX traded up $11.57 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $167.62. 759,636 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 422,937. The business’s 50 day moving average is $148.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $110.85. Argan, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $43.44 and a fifty-two week high of $176.85. The stock has a market cap of $2.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.07 and a beta of 0.56.

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

Argan Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd will be issued a $0.375 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 23rd. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.89%. Argan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.38%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AGX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. CJS Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of Argan in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Lake Street Capital lowered shares of Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd.

Institutional Trading of Argan

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Argan by 81.8% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 911,056 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $92,408,000 after buying an additional 409,948 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in Argan by 7.7% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 537,296 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $39,309,000 after buying an additional 38,300 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 16,055 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Argan by 31.8% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 305,298 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $22,336,000 after purchasing an additional 73,658 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Argan by 0.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 287,246 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $29,141,000 after purchasing an additional 1,553 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

About Argan

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.