Argan (NYSE:AGX) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX)’s share price gapped down before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $395.20, but opened at $370.66. Argan shares last traded at $361.7830, with a volume of 65,536 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AGX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group set a $315.00 target price on shares of Argan in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Zacks Research cut Argan from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 12th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Argan in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Argan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target (up from $315.00) on shares of Argan in a research note on Monday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Argan presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $310.17.

Argan Stock Down 7.3%

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $306.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $250.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.99 and a beta of 0.64.

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

Argan Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Argan news, Director Cynthia Flanders sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.96, for a total transaction of $4,079,400.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 16,428 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,467,758.88. This trade represents a 47.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director James W. Quinn sold 13,444 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.12, for a total value of $3,618,049.28. Following the completion of 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 position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 106,795 shares of company stock worth $29,401,111 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 6.69% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Argan

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Argan in the 1st quarter worth approximately $667,000. Nomura Holdings Inc. increased its stake in shares of Argan by 810.0% in the first quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 69,184 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $9,075,000 after purchasing an additional 61,581 shares in the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new stake in shares of Argan in the first quarter worth $551,000. Delta Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Argan during the 1st quarter valued at $536,000. Finally, Hartree Partners LP purchased a new position in shares of Argan during the 1st quarter valued at $2,361,000. 79.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.