Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.70

Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, September 9th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 22nd will be paid a dividend of 0.70 per share by the construction company on Friday, October 30th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 22nd. This is a 40.0% increase from Argan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50.

Argan has decreased its dividend by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 2 consecutive years. Argan has a dividend payout ratio of 27.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Argan to earn $17.08 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.7%.

Argan Trading Down 7.8%

NYSE:AGX opened at $402.62 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.85, a PEG ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.57. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $550.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $584.70. Argan has a 12 month low of $219.05 and a 12 month high of $805.75.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 2nd. The construction company reported $3.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $1.12. The firm had revenue of $383.98 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $300.53 million. Argan had a net margin of 15.09% and a return on equity of 38.51%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 61.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.50 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Argan will post 13.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AGX. Freedom Broker raised Argan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 4th. Lake Street Capital raised Argan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded Argan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Argan from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler initiated coverage on Argan in a research report on Tuesday. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $273.00 price objective on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $437.50.

Argan Company Profile

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.