State Street Corp Increases Stock Position in Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX)

State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) by 4.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 353,984 shares of the construction company’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,055 shares during the period. State Street Corp’s holdings in Argan were worth $35,905,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Argan during the third quarter valued at approximately $471,000. Penn Mutual Asset Management raised its stake in shares of Argan by 195.6% in the third quarter. Penn Mutual Asset Management now owns 10,050 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,019,000 after buying an additional 6,650 shares during the period. Centiva Capital LP grew its stake in shares of Argan by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Centiva Capital LP now owns 6,872 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $697,000 after acquiring an additional 583 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its stake in Argan by 21.5% during the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 3,009 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $305,000 after acquiring an additional 532 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Argan by 68.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,033 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $105,000 after purchasing an additional 419 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on AGX shares. CJS Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $150.00 price target on shares of Argan in a report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com cut shares of Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Lake Street Capital lowered Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd.

Argan Price Performance

Shares of AGX stock opened at $139.33 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.15 and a beta of 0.53. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $142.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $102.36. Argan, Inc. has a one year low of $43.44 and a one year high of $165.33.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The construction company reported $2.00 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.26 by $0.74. The company had revenue of $257.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $225.60 million. Argan had a net margin of 8.20% and a return on equity of 21.66%. The business’s revenue was up 56.9% compared to the same quarter last year.

Argan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.375 per share. This represents a $1.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 23rd. Argan’s payout ratio is 31.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Rainer H. Bosselmann sold 4,598 shares of Argan stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.01, for a total value of $602,383.98. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 236,745 shares in the company, valued at $31,015,962.45. The trade was a 1.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Cynthia Flanders sold 5,000 shares of Argan stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.39, for a total transaction of $481,950.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 17,332 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,670,631.48. The trade was a 22.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 39,703 shares of company stock valued at $4,821,494. Insiders own 11.85% of the company’s stock.

About Argan

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.