Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) Short Interest Up 9.8% in September

Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 258,700 shares, a growth of 9.8% from the September 15th total of 235,700 shares. Currently, 2.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 221,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.2 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Peter W. Getsinger sold 1,405 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.36, for a total transaction of $110,095.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,018,680. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Peter W. Getsinger sold 1,405 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.36, for a total transaction of $110,095.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,018,680. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director James W. Quinn sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.68, for a total transaction of $896,800.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 70,422 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,315,444.96. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 56,539 shares of company stock worth $4,820,475. Company insiders own 11.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Argan

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Truist Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Argan by 76.2% during the second 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. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Argan during the second quarter valued at about $3,166,000. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Argan during the second quarter valued at about $2,628,000. MKP Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in shares of Argan during the second quarter valued at about $878,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Argan by 32.8% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 175,245 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $12,811,000 after acquiring an additional 43,258 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.43% of the company’s stock.

Argan Stock Up 7.3 %

Argan stock opened at $129.28 on Thursday. Argan has a 52-week low of $39.74 and a 52-week high of $129.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.01 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $89.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $75.72.

Argan (NYSE:AGX) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Argan had a net margin of 6.11% and a return on equity of 14.80%. The firm had revenue of $227.02 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $191.05 million. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 60.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

Argan Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 23rd will be issued a $0.375 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 23rd. This represents a $1.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.16%. This is a positive change from Argan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. Argan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.38%.

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.