Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Purchases New Holdings in Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX)

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 8,540 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $866,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AGX. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new stake in Argan in the third quarter worth $43,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in Argan in the 2nd quarter worth about $41,000. Copeland Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Argan during the 3rd quarter valued at about $56,000. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Argan in the 3rd quarter valued at about $91,000. Finally, Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new position in Argan in the 2nd quarter worth about $70,000. Institutional investors own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

Argan Stock Performance

AGX stock opened at $148.84 on Wednesday. Argan, Inc. has a one year low of $39.74 and a one year high of $162.78. The firm has a market cap of $2.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.64 and a beta of 0.49. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $118.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $89.05.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The construction company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.34. Argan had a net margin of 6.11% and a return on equity of 14.80%. The company had revenue of $227.02 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $191.05 million. The business’s revenue was up 60.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

Argan Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.375 per share. This is a positive change from Argan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 23rd. This represents a $1.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.01%. Argan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.17%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William F. Leimkuhler sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.20, for a total value of $962,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 35,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,448,962.40. This represents a 21.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Rainer H. Bosselmann sold 10,105 shares of Argan stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.10, for a total value of $1,314,660.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 219,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,606,257.90. This trade represents a 4.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 39,703 shares of company stock valued at $4,257,794. Insiders own 11.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th.

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.