Fiducient Advisors LLC Buys New Position in Argan, Inc. $AGX

Fiducient Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 1,090 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $342,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Argan by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 827,482 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $259,267,000 after purchasing an additional 3,068 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Argan by 69.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 559,466 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $151,084,000 after acquiring an additional 230,073 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Argan by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 435,761 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $117,677,000 after acquiring an additional 4,027 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Argan by 25.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 400,379 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $125,462,000 after acquiring an additional 80,415 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Argan by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 324,356 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $71,514,000 after acquiring an additional 5,575 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AGX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Argan from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $550.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, March 27th. Zacks Research cut Argan from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Freedom Capital raised Argan to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Argan in a report on Monday, April 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Argan from $399.00 to $518.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $425.40.

Argan Stock Performance

NYSE AGX opened at $676.30 on Friday. Argan, Inc. has a 52 week low of $193.82 and a 52 week high of $748.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 69.44 and a beta of 0.61. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $610.75 and a 200-day moving average of $455.28.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 26th. The construction company reported $3.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $1.48. Argan had a return on equity of 33.62% and a net margin of 14.59%.The business had revenue of $262.05 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $255.32 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.22 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Argan, Inc. will post 11.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Argan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 22nd. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Argan’s payout ratio is currently 20.53%.

Argan declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, April 8th that allows the company to buyback $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the construction company to reacquire up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John Ronald Jr. Jeffrey sold 4,556 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $539.85, for a total value of $2,459,556.60. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,636 shares in the company, valued at $1,962,894.60. The trade was a 55.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director William F. Leimkuhler sold 8,444 shares of Argan stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $598.49, for a total value of $5,053,649.56. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 41,495 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,834,342.55. This represents a 16.91% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 64,543 shares of company stock valued at $39,054,956. Company insiders own 6.69% of the company’s stock.

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.