Ieq Capital LLC Makes New $3.02 Million Investment in Argan, Inc. $AGX

Ieq Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 3,777 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,016,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AGX. Western Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Argan in the first quarter worth approximately $25,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. increased its holdings in Argan by 2,950.0% during the first quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 61 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new position in Argan in the second quarter worth approximately $52,000. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. bought a new position in Argan in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Harbor Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Argan during the 2nd quarter worth $77,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AGX. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Argan from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Lake Street Capital lifted their target price on Argan from $375.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Zacks Research lowered Argan from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $470.40.

Argan Price Performance

AGX opened at $469.15 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $628.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $581.86. The firm has a market cap of $6.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.23 and a beta of 0.61. Argan, Inc. has a 1-year low of $197.00 and a 1-year high of $805.75.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 4th. The construction company reported $3.24 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.31 by $0.93. Argan had a net margin of 15.48% and a return on equity of 36.89%. The firm had revenue of $290.95 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $256.03 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.60 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 50.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Argan, Inc. will post 12.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Argan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 23rd. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Argan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Argan

In other news, Chairman William F. Griffin, Jr. sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $31,159,379.68. The trade was a 32.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Karen Sweeney sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $705.00, for a total value of $211,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 1,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,091,340. This trade represents a 16.23% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 127,973 shares of company stock valued at $87,554,828. 2.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Argan 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.