Pallas Capital Advisors LLC Invests $1.50 Million in Argan, Inc. $AGX

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 1,881 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,502,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Argan by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 827,482 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $259,267,000 after purchasing an additional 3,068 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Argan by 32.1% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 791,353 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $431,010,000 after buying an additional 192,204 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of Argan by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 610,899 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $332,726,000 after buying an additional 12,300 shares during the period. Maverick Capital Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Argan by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 464,759 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $253,131,000 after buying an additional 25,901 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Argan by 25.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 400,379 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $125,462,000 after buying an additional 80,415 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Argan

In other Argan news, Director John Ronald Jr. Jeffrey sold 5,716 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $579.64, for a total value of $3,313,222.24. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 2,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,468,228.12. This trade represents a 69.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Peter W. Getsinger sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $699.00, for a total value of $1,398,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,880 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,411,120. This represents a 29.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 127,973 shares of company stock worth $87,554,828 in the last 90 days. 2.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Argan Price Performance

NYSE AGX opened at $588.21 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $8.25 billion, a PE ratio of 51.69 and a beta of 0.61. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $640.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $576.41. Argan, Inc. has a 1-year low of $197.00 and a 1-year high of $805.75.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The construction company reported $3.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $290.95 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $256.03 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.60 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 50.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Argan, Inc. will post 12.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Argan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 31st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 23rd were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 23rd. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Argan’s payout ratio is presently 17.57%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

About Argan

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.