Vontobel Holding Ltd. Buys Shares of 1,468 Argan, Inc. $AGX

Key Points

• Vontobel Holding Ltd. acquired a stake in Argan, Inc. by purchasing 1,468 shares, valued at approximately $324,000, as per their recent SEC filing.
• Insider trading revealed that CEO David Hibbert Watson sold 4,441 shares, leading to an 8.52% decrease in his position, while other executives also reduced their stakes significantly.
• Argan recently announced a quarterly dividend increase from $0.38 to $0.50 per share, reflecting a commitment to returning value to shareholders amidst a strong financial performance.

Vontobel Holding Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,468 shares of the construction company's stock, valued at approximately $324,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in Argan by 26.7% during the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,977 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $522,000 after buying an additional 839 shares during the last quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Argan during the 1st quarter valued at $667,000. Nomura Holdings Inc. grew its position in shares of Argan by 810.0% during the 1st quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 69,184 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $9,075,000 after acquiring an additional 61,581 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Argan by 362.2% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,969 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $652,000 after acquiring an additional 3,894 shares during the period. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of Argan during the 1st quarter valued at $551,000. 79.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Argan

In other Argan news, CEO David Hibbert Watson sold 4,441 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.01, for a total transaction of $1,230,201.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 47,691 shares of the company's stock, valued at $13,210,883.91. This represents a 8.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director William F. Leimkuhler sold 11,802 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.73, for a total transaction of $3,242,363.46. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 38,834 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,668,864.82. This trade represents a 23.31% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 91,027 shares of company stock worth $23,954,396. Insiders own 6.69% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AGX shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Argan from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Lake Street Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Argan from $236.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Argan from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $220.00 to $315.00 in a research report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Argan in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Glj Research initiated coverage on shares of Argan in a report on Monday, September 22nd. They issued a "hold" rating and a $251.00 target price for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Argan currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $258.20.

Argan Stock Performance

Shares of Argan stock opened at $299.59 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.01 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a fifty day moving average of $243.76 and a 200 day moving average of $208.20. Argan, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $101.02 and a fifty-two week high of $301.31.

Argan (NYSE:AGX - Get Free Report) last released 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. Argan had a net margin of 12.73% and a return on equity of 32.61%. The business had revenue of $237.74 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $243.97 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.31 EPS. The business's revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis.

Argan Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 31st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is a boost from Argan's previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 23rd. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Argan's payout ratio is currently 18.03%.

Argan Company 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.

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