Chart of the Day: Argan - Engineering & Construction Services

The Chart of the Day belongs to the engineering and construction company Argan (AGX) . I found the stock by using Barchart's powerful screening functions to find stocks with the highest technical buy signals, highest Weighted Alpha, superior current momentum and having a Trend Seeker buy signal then used the Flipchart feature to review the charts for consistent price appreciation. Since the Trend Seeker signaled a buy on 2/12 the stock gained 65.13%.

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. This segment serves independent power project owners, public utilities, power plant equipment suppliers, and other commercial firms. The Industrial Services segment provides industrial construction and field services and vessel fabrication services for fertilizer, engineering and construction, forest products, and various other industrial companies in southeast region of the United States. The Telecom Services segment offers trenchless directional boring and excavation for underground communication and power networks, as well as aerial cabling services; and installs buried cable, high and low voltage electric lines, and private area outdoor lighting systems. It also provides structured cabling, terminations, and connectivity that offers the physical transport for high-speed data, voice, video, and security networks. This segment serves electricity cooperative, state and local government agencies, counties and municipalities, and technology-oriented government contracting firms, as well as federal government facilities in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Argan, Inc. was incorporated in 1961 and is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland.

Opinion Trading systems are listed below. Please note that the Barchart Opinion indicators are updated live during the session every 20 minutes and can therefore change during the day as the market fluctuates. The indicator numbers shown below therefore may not match what you see live on the Barchart.com website when you read this report.

Barchart Technical Indicators:

• 100% technical buy signals
• 116.15+ Weighted Alpha
• 108.96% gain in the last year
• Trend Seeker buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 10 new highs and up 16.52% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 79.42%
• Technical support level at $75.58
• Recently traded at $77.51 with 50 day moving average of $62.80

Fundamental Factors:

• Market Cap $1.02 billion
• P/E 24.60
• Dividend yield 1.51%
• Revenue expected to grow 40.70% this year and another 5.90% next year
• Earnings estimated to increase 61.90% this year, an additional 27.60% next year and continue to compound at an annual rate of 10.80% for the next 5 years

Analysts and Investor Sentiment -- I don't buy stocks because everyone else is buying but I do realize that if major firms and investors are dumping a stock it's hard to make money swimming against the tide:

• Wall Street analysts issued 1 strong buy, and 1 buy recommendation
• Analysts have price targets between $60 and $85 with a consensus of $77.50
• Value Line rates the stock an above average rating of  2
• CFRAs MarketScope has a buy rating
• MorningStar gives the stock an average 3 star rating but says it is trading at a 7% premium to a  Fair Value of $71.18
• 5,480 investors monitor the stock on Seeking Alpha

Additional disclosure: The Barchart Chart of the Day highlights stocks that are experiencing exceptional current price appreciation. They are not intended to be buy recommendations as these stocks are extremely volatile and speculative. Should you decide to add one of these stocks to your investment portfolio it is highly suggested you follow a predetermined diversification and moving stop loss discipline that is consistent with your personal investment risk tolerance and reevaluate your stop losses at least on a weekly basis.