Invesco Ltd. Sells 103,443 Shares of Argan, Inc. $AGX

Key Points

• Invesco Ltd. sold 55.1% of its holdings in Argan, Inc., reducing their ownership to 0.62% by the end of the first quarter, valued at approximately $11 million.
• Wall Street analysts have lowered their ratings on Argan, with one firm changing from a "buy" to a "hold," while the stock receives an overall consensus rating of "Hold" with an average price target of $202.00.
• Argan recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.375 per share, resulting in an annualized yield of 0.7%, with a payout ratio of 21.04% as of the last reporting period.

Invesco Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX - Free Report) by 55.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 84,377 shares of the construction company's stock after selling 103,443 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. owned approximately 0.62% of Argan worth $11,068,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Argan by 9.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 926,168 shares of the construction company's stock worth $121,485,000 after acquiring an additional 82,585 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in shares of Argan by 5.8% during the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 529,052 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $72,502,000 after acquiring an additional 29,062 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in Argan in the 4th quarter worth approximately $23,064,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Argan by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 133,494 shares of the construction company's stock worth $18,294,000 after buying an additional 6,483 shares during the period. Finally, Lord Abbett & CO. LLC lifted its stake in Argan by 66.2% in the 4th quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 109,541 shares of the construction company's stock worth $15,011,000 after purchasing an additional 43,613 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.43% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Argan

In other Argan news, Director Rainer H. Bosselmann sold 13,728 shares of Argan stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $221.58, for a total value of $3,041,850.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 196,723 shares of the company's stock, valued at $43,589,882.34. This trade represents a 6.52% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Charles Edwin Iv Collins sold 5,000 shares of Argan stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $1,225,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,506 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,553,970. The trade was a 25.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 96,564 shares of company stock valued at $21,046,366 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 6.69% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Argan from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Kepler Capital Markets cut shares of Argan from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Lake Street Capital lifted their target price on shares of Argan from $150.00 to $236.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on shares of Argan in a research note on Monday, July 21st. They set a "neutral" rating and a $220.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $202.00.

Argan Price Performance

Shares of AGX stock traded up $14.22 on Thursday, hitting $241.09. 196,155 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 424,070. The firm has a market cap of $3.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.04 and a beta of 0.59. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $219.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $178.78. Argan, Inc. has a 52 week low of $69.81 and a 52 week high of $253.79.

Argan (NYSE:AGX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, June 4th. The construction company reported $1.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.09 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $193.66 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $193.75 million. Argan had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 29.61%. Argan's quarterly revenue was up 22.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.58 earnings per share.

Argan Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.375 per share. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 23rd. Argan's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.04%.

Argan Profile

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.