Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.50

Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 23rd will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the construction company on Friday, July 31st. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 23rd.

Argan has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 2 consecutive years. Argan has a dividend payout ratio of 27.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Argan to earn $16.66 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 12.0%.

Argan Trading Down 4.4%

Shares of AGX opened at $586.94 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $8.23 billion, a PE ratio of 51.58 and a beta of 0.58. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $642.83 and a 200-day moving average price of $474.43. Argan has a 12-month low of $193.82 and a 12-month high of $779.00.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last issued 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 firm had revenue of $290.95 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $256.03 million. Argan had a return on equity of 36.89% and a net margin of 15.48%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 50.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.60 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Argan will post 12.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AGX. Zacks Research downgraded Argan from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Freedom Capital upgraded Argan to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Argan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 28th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Argan in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Argan from $399.00 to $518.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $470.40.

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.