Argan, Inc. $AGX Stock Holdings Lifted by New York State Teachers Retirement System

New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) by 599.5% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 7,939 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 6,804 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Argan were worth $4,324,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Sage Investment Counsel LLC bought a new position in Argan during the first quarter valued at approximately $219,000. Fulton Bank N.A. increased its stake in shares of Argan by 17.2% during the 1st quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 762 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $415,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. increased its stake in shares of Argan by 2,950.0% during the 1st quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 61 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Gunderson Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Argan during the 1st quarter valued at $5,079,000. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Argan in the 1st quarter valued at $539,000. 79.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AGX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded Argan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 28th. Zacks Research upgraded Argan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Argan from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $550.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, March 27th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Argan in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Lake Street Capital upped their target price on Argan from $375.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Argan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $470.40.

Insider Activity

In other Argan news, Chairman William F. Griffin, Jr. sold 20,000 shares of Argan stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $760.43, for a total value of $15,208,600.00. Following the transaction, the chairman directly owned 40,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,159,379.68. The trade was a 32.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Peter W. Getsinger sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $699.00, for a total value of $1,398,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,411,120. This trade represents a 29.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 179,663 shares of company stock worth $119,410,408 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 6.69% of the company’s stock.

Argan Price Performance

Argan stock opened at $669.01 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $9.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.79 and a beta of 0.57. Argan, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $196.90 and a fifty-two week high of $805.75. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $689.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $527.73.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The construction company reported $3.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.31 by $0.93. The company had revenue of $290.95 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $256.03 million. Argan had a net margin of 15.48% and a return on equity of 36.89%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 50.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.60 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Argan, Inc. will post 12.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Argan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 31st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 23rd. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Argan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 17.57%.

Argan declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, April 8th that authorizes the company to buyback $200.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the construction company to purchase up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Argan Company Profile

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.