Brown Advisory Inc. Invests $207,000 in Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX)

Brown Advisory Inc. bought a new position in Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,576 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Argan during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. McIlrath & Eck LLC increased its holdings in shares of Argan by 419.4% in the fourth quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 374 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Argan by 1,123.5% in the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 416 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 382 shares during the last quarter. Amundi increased its holdings in shares of Argan by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 859 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $118,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of Tennessee Department of Treasury acquired a new stake in Argan during the fourth quarter worth $138,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Cynthia Flanders sold 15,000 shares of Argan stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $220.47, for a total transaction of $3,307,050.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 33,428 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,369,871.16. The trade was a 30.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Rainer H. Bosselmann sold 13,728 shares of Argan stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $221.58, for a total value of $3,041,850.24. Following the sale, the director directly owned 196,723 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,589,882.34. The trade was a 6.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 85,404 shares of company stock valued at $18,221,387 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 6.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AGX shares. Lake Street Capital lifted their price objective on Argan from $150.00 to $236.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Kepler Capital Markets downgraded Argan from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th.

Argan Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AGX opened at $213.38 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $206.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $164.05. The stock has a market cap of $2.91 billion, a PE ratio of 29.93 and a beta of 0.54. Argan, Inc. has a one year low of $63.53 and a one year high of $246.60.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 4th. The construction company reported $1.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.09 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $193.66 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $193.75 million. Argan had a return on equity of 29.61% and a net margin of 11.00%. The business’s revenue was up 22.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.58 earnings per share.

Argan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 23rd will be given a $0.375 dividend. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 23rd. Argan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.04%.

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.