Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Buys Shares of 65,928 Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC bought a new position in Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 65,928 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,687,000. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC owned approximately 0.49% of Argan at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Entropy Technologies LP increased its holdings in Argan by 108.6% in the 3rd quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 7,104 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $721,000 after buying an additional 3,699 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Argan by 76.2% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 12,552 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $918,000 after acquiring an additional 5,430 shares during the last quarter. Penn Mutual Asset Management grew 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 acquiring an additional 6,650 shares during the period. Saturna Capital Corp purchased a new position in shares of Argan during the third quarter valued at approximately $395,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Argan by 279.4% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 13,635 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,383,000 after purchasing an additional 10,041 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

Argan Trading Up 2.5 %

AGX opened at $146.58 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $139.45 and its 200 day moving average is $100.28. The company has a market cap of $1.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.60 and a beta of 0.53. Argan, Inc. has a 12-month low of $43.44 and a 12-month high of $165.33.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The construction company reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.26 by $0.74. Argan had a net margin of 8.20% and a return on equity of 21.66%. The business had revenue of $257.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $225.60 million. The firm’s revenue was up 56.9% compared to the same quarter last year.

Argan Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.375 per share. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 23rd. Argan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.38%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Lake Street Capital downgraded shares of Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. StockNews.com lowered Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, CJS Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $150.00 price objective on shares of Argan in a research report on Friday, December 6th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Argan news, 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 transaction, the director now owns 17,332 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,670,631.48. The trade was a 22.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Rainer H. Bosselmann sold 4,598 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.01, for a total transaction of $602,383.98. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 236,745 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,015,962.45. This trade represents a 1.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 29,703 shares of company stock worth $3,360,994 over the last quarter. 11.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.