Bank of New York Mellon Corp Boosts Stock Position in Argan, Inc. $AGX

Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) by 2.2% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 174,533 shares of the construction company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,762 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in Argan were worth $38,481,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Argan by 1.2% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,756 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,067,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Argan in the first quarter valued at about $207,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Argan by 12.7% during the first quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,059 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $139,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Argan by 49.9% during the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 6,059 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $795,000 after purchasing an additional 2,017 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its position in shares of Argan by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 64,521 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $8,463,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on AGX. UBS Group set a $315.00 price objective on Argan in a report on Monday, October 13th. Zacks Research upgraded Argan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Glj Research upgraded Argan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $251.00 to $369.00 in a research report on Monday. Lake Street Capital increased their price objective on Argan from $236.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Argan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $301.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Argan

In other Argan news, Director James W. Quinn sold 13,444 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.12, for a total value of $3,618,049.28. Following the transaction, the director owned 49,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,340,278.40. This represents a 21.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Peter W. Getsinger sold 6,493 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $294.39, for a total transaction of $1,911,474.27. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 9,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,913,577.83. This trade represents a 39.62% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 106,795 shares of company stock worth $29,401,111. Insiders own 6.69% of the company’s stock.

Argan Price Performance

NYSE:AGX opened at $364.75 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $276.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $233.10. Argan, Inc. has a 1-year low of $101.02 and a 1-year high of $365.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.84 and a beta of 0.64.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 4th. The construction company reported $2.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $0.51. Argan had a net margin of 12.73% and a return on equity of 32.61%. The firm had revenue of $237.74 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $243.97 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.31 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year.

Argan Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 23rd were paid a $0.50 dividend. This is a boost from Argan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 23rd. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Argan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.04%.

Argan Company Profile

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.