AGX · Industrials(construction - special trade contractors) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2026-01-31
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Argan Inc reported revenue of $944.6 million in fiscal 2026, after growing 3.8% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin narrowed from 16.6% in 2017 to 14.3%. Of the $1.0 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 19.6% went to dividends and 11.2% to buybacks; the share count fell 9.5%. On the accounting screens, it passes 5 of 8 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 4.88 is in the safe zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; none of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 2026944.6M+3.8% a year over 9 years
Operating margin14.3%gross margin 20.5%
Return on invested capital—
Free cash flow after stock pay403.0M42.7% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA—net debt —
Piotroski F-score5/8tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
-0.5B00.5B1.0B
2017Revenue 675.0MOperating income 112.3M
2018Revenue 892.8MOperating income 107.0M
2019Revenue 482.2MOperating income 40.2M
2020Revenue 239.0MOperating income -55.8M
2021Revenue 392.2MOperating income 23.0M
2022Revenue 509.4MOperating income 44.5M
2023Revenue 455.0MOperating income 41.7M
2024Revenue 573.3MOperating income 36.5M
2025Revenue 874.2MOperating income 88.2M
2026Revenue 944.6MOperating income 134.7M
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+27.6%
+19.2%
+3.8%
Operating income
+47.9%
+42.4%
+2.0%
Net income
+60.9%
+42.0%
+7.8%
Earnings per share
+61.0%
+45.2%
+9.0%
Free cash flow per share
—
+21.4%
+6.6%
Dividend per share
+20.3%
-10.4%
+6.5%
Shares
-0.1%
-2.2%
-1.1%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
Return on invested capitalCost of capital today · 10.2%
0%5%10%15%
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Economic profit
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
29.8%
Return on assets
11.6%
Asset turnover
0.80×
Overheads (SG&A)
6.2% of revenue
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
-200M0200M400M600M
2017Net income 70.3MFree cash flow 256.2MAfter stock-based pay 253.9M
2018Net income 72.0MFree cash flow -77.6MAfter stock-based pay -82.3M
2019Net income 52.0MFree cash flow -120.9MAfter stock-based pay -122.6M
2020Net income -42.7MFree cash flow 46.5MAfter stock-based pay 44.4M
2021Net income 23.9MFree cash flow 174.3MAfter stock-based pay 171.4M
2022Net income 38.2MFree cash flow 27.0MAfter stock-based pay 23.5M
2023Net income 33.1MFree cash flow -33.4MAfter stock-based pay -37.4M
2024Net income 32.4MFree cash flow 114.1MAfter stock-based pay 109.6M
2025Net income 85.5MFree cash flow 161.0MAfter stock-based pay 156.5M
2026Net income 137.8MFree cash flow 410.8MAfter stock-based pay 403.0M
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2017–2026
1.0B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 4%43.0M
Acquisitions 0%0
Dividends 20%195.9M
Share buybacks 11%112.5M
Kept, or used to pay down debt 65%649.7M
Over the same years it paid 37.9M in stock. The share count fell 9.5%. 74.6M of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
-$10$0$10$20$30
2017Earnings per share $4.50Free cash flow per share $16.40Dividend per share $0.98
2018Earnings per share $4.56Free cash flow per share $-4.92Dividend per share $0.99
2019Earnings per share $3.32Free cash flow per share $-7.71Dividend per share $0.99
2020Earnings per share $-2.73Free cash flow per share $2.98Dividend per share $1.00
2021Earnings per share $1.51Free cash flow per share $11.02Dividend per share $2.97
2022Earnings per share $2.40Free cash flow per share $1.70Dividend per share $0.98
2023Earnings per share $2.33Free cash flow per share $-2.36Dividend per share $0.98
2024Earnings per share $2.39Free cash flow per share $8.42Dividend per share $1.08
2025Earnings per share $6.15Free cash flow per share $11.58Dividend per share $1.31
2026Earnings per share $9.74Free cash flow per share $29.04Dividend per share $1.72
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
13M14M15M16M
2017Diluted shares 15.6M
2018Diluted shares 15.8M
2019Diluted shares 15.7M
2020Diluted shares 15.6M
2021Diluted shares 15.8M
2022Diluted shares 15.9M
2023Diluted shares 14.2M
2024Diluted shares 13.5M
2025Diluted shares 13.9M
2026Diluted shares 14.1M
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Debt and liquidity
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
—
Interest coverage
— operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
1.59 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 52d
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
5of 8 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✓Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforepassed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
–Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fell — not reportedno data
✕More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforefailed
✕No new sharesShare count did not growfailed
✓Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year beforepassed
✕Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforefailed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
4.88safe zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.35 × 6.56+2.33
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.34 × 3.26+1.12
Operating income ÷ assets 0.11 × 6.72+0.76
Equity ÷ liabilities 0.64 × 1.05+0.67
Where it misleads: buybacks. A company that returns so much cash that its equity turns small or negative sinks the last two ratios without being anywhere near bankruptcy. Banks and insurers do not fit the model at all.
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
-4.03below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 0.70+0.65
Gross margin slipping 0.79+0.42
Soft assets 0.65+0.26
Sales growth 1.08+0.96
Slower depreciation 1.13+0.13
Overheads vs sales 1.03-0.18
Profit not in cash -0.23-1.09
Leverage rising 1.04-0.34
Where it misleads: fast growth and acquisitions. Sales growth carries a heavy weight, so a company growing 50% a year scores like a suspect without having done anything. It is a screen from a 1999 study, not an accusation.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
None of the six cross-checks fires for the latest year: receivables and inventory move with revenue, profit turns into cash, investment keeps up with depreciation, the tax rate is ordinary and debt is moderate.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
Value per share, with these assumptions$107.12discounted at 10.2% a year · 54% of it from after year 10
Type a share price on the left to ask the reverse questions: what growth, what margin or what discount rate that price implies.
What the value implies, in the usual multiples
At this model's value
Price ÷ earnings
11.0×
Enterprise value ÷ EBITDA
11.1×
Enterprise value ÷ revenue
1.6×
Free cash flow yield
26.6%
From cash flows to a value per share
10 years of cash flow, today698.0M
Everything after, today817.4M
The whole business1.5B
Minus net debt-0
What belongs to shareholders1.5B
Divided among 14.1M shares: <strong>$107.12</strong> each.
The projection next to its history
Reported free cash flow after stock pay, then the model's. A projection that looks nothing like the past needs a reason.
ReportedProjected
-200M0200M400M600M
2017Reported 253.9M
2018Reported -82.3M
2019Reported -122.6M
2020Reported 44.4M
2021Reported 171.4M
2022Reported 23.5M
2023Reported -37.4M
2024Reported 109.6M
2025Reported 156.5M
2026Reported 403.0M
2027Projected 70.9M
2028Projected 83.1M
2029Projected 95.9M
2030Projected 108.8M
2031Projected 121.5M
2032Projected 133.4M
2033Projected 144.1M
2034Projected 153.0M
2035Projected 159.6M
2036Projected 163.6M
2017201920212023202520272029203120332035
Year by year
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
2032
2033
2034
2035
2036
Revenue
1.1B
1.3B
1.5B
1.7B
1.9B
2.1B
2.3B
2.4B
2.5B
2.6B
Growth
19.0%
17.2%
15.3%
13.5%
11.7%
9.8%
8.0%
6.2%
4.3%
2.5%
Cash margin
6.3%
6.3%
6.3%
6.3%
6.3%
6.3%
6.3%
6.3%
6.3%
6.3%
Free cash flow
70.9M
83.1M
95.9M
108.8M
121.5M
133.4M
144.1M
153.0M
159.6M
163.6M
Worth today
64.3M
68.4M
71.6M
73.7M
74.6M
74.3M
72.8M
70.1M
66.4M
61.7M
If the least-known inputs move
Value per share as two inputs change at a time. Neighbouring cells that differ a lot are the conclusion: the value depends on numbers nobody knows to a point.
The discount rate and growth forever
discount ↓ · forever →
1.5%
2.0%
2.5%
3.0%
3.5%
9.2%
111
117
125
133
143
9.7%
103
109
115
122
131
10.2%
97
102
107
113
120
10.7%
91
95
100
105
111
11.2%
86
90
94
98
104
Year-one growth and the final margin
margin ↓ · growth →
15.0%
17.0%
19.0%
21.0%
23.0%
5.1%
77
84
90
97
105
5.7%
85
91
99
106
115
6.3%
92
99
107
116
125
6.9%
99
107
116
125
135
7.6%
106
115
124
134
145
All the inputs moving at once
5,000 valuations, each with growth, final margin, discount rate and growth forever drawn at random around the values on the left (spreads of 3.0%, 2.0%, 1.0% and 0.5%). Not a probability — the spreads are assumptions too — but an honest picture of how wide the answer is.
10th percentile$69.04
Median$107.10
90th percentile$157.44
$50.00$100.00$150.00$200.00
Half of the simulations land between <b>$86.20</b> and <b>$131.15</b>; one in ten below $69.04, one in ten above $157.44.
Does the long run make sense?
5.8×The terminal value prices the business in year 10 at 5.8 times that year's EBITDA.
5%To grow 2.5% forever while reinvesting 48% of its after-tax operating profit, the business must earn 5% on the new capital.
54%of the value comes from after year 10. The more of it, the more the answer depends on the part nobody can see.
What lenders charge, after the tax saving on interest: 6.74% × (1 − 14.2%) = <strong>5.79%</strong>.
Weighted by how much of each the company uses (book value (no price given)): <strong>10.24%</strong>, the rate every future cash flow is discounted at.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Every Form 4 filed in the last twelve months, read line by line: 6 filings by 5 people. Open-market purchases and sales are counted apart from awards, option exercises and shares withheld for taxes.
Bought on the open market—none in the period
Sold on the open market$40.9M5 sale(s) by 3 insider(s)
Under pre-arranged plans0%of the sales followed a 10b5-1 plan set months earlier
A Form 4 says what happened, when, how many shares and at what price. It does not say why: a sale can be diversification, a tax bill or a plan fixed months earlier, and an award is pay, not a purchase. Nothing here is a reason to buy or sell anything.
Which large funds report holding it
From the Form 13F of the 28 institutions followed on this site, as of the end of their last reported quarter. A 13F is filed up to 45 days later and shows only long positions in US-listed shares.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.