Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) Stock Holdings Cut by River Road Asset Management LLC

River Road Asset Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) by 9.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 708,256 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 72,560 shares during the quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC owned about 5.25% of Argan worth $71,838,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of Argan by 12.5% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 20,264 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,024,000 after acquiring an additional 2,259 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in shares of Argan by 18.3% during the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 10,426 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $527,000 after acquiring an additional 1,611 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Argan by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 726,171 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $36,701,000 after acquiring an additional 12,162 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Argan by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 131,987 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $6,668,000 after acquiring an additional 2,778 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Argan during the 1st quarter worth $95,000. 79.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Argan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, 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 in the company, valued at approximately $31,015,962.45. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, 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 in the company, valued at approximately $31,015,962.45. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Cynthia Flanders sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.39, for a total value of $481,950.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 17,332 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,670,631.48. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 39,703 shares of company stock worth $4,257,794. Corporate insiders own 11.85% of the company’s stock.

Argan Stock Up 1.6 %

AGX opened at $138.77 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $104.40 and a 200-day moving average of $82.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.97 and a beta of 0.49. Argan, Inc. has a 12-month low of $39.74 and a 12-month high of $141.46.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The construction company reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $227.02 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $191.05 million. Argan had a return on equity of 14.80% and a net margin of 6.11%. The company’s revenue was up 60.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

Argan Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 23rd were issued a $0.375 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 23rd. This represents a $1.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.08%. This is a positive change from Argan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. Argan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.17%.

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.