Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its first-quarter 2025 investor letter for “Polen 5Perspectives Small Growth Strategy”. A copy of the letter is available to download here. Polen 5Perspectives Small Growth Composite Portfolio returned 3.3% gross and 3.0% net of fees, respectively, in the first quarter of 2026, compared to the -2.8% return of the Russell 2000 Growth Index. Small caps performed strongly at the start of the first quarter, but market volatility caused a shift in focus. Initially, fears of AI disruption in software dominated, followed by worries over private credit redemptions raising broader systemic risk concerns. By March, concerns shifted mainly to increasing geopolitical risks and their impact on rates and inflation. This heightened volatility is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. The importance of adopting a flexible approach to opportunities has become clear this year. In addition, please check the Strategy’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2026.
In its first-quarter 2026 investor letter, Polen 5Perspectives Small Growth Strategy highlighted Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) as a leading contributor. Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) is a holding company that provides construction, commissioning, maintenance and related services to power generation market. On May 13, 2026, Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) closed at $719.92 per share. One-month return of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) was 19.62%, and its shares gained 292.71% over the past 52 weeks. Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) has a market capitalization of $10.05 billion.
Polen 5Perspectives Small Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:
“The top contributors to the Portfolio’s relative performance in the quarter were Powell Industries , Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX), and Bloom Energy. Argan is a construction company that, among other things, constructs gas-fired power plants. In recent years the company has benefited from a growing backlog of projects to construct power plants that supply electricity to data centers running AI workloads. Specific to the period, Argan surged 38% on the back of very strong earnings results that came in well ahead of consensus as the backlog grew to nearly $3B and the company signaled continued demand for large scale power projects. Stepping back, Argan appears to be very well positioned to capitalize on a multi-year investment cycle to build out power infrastructure as companies race to bring data centers online.”
Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 57 hedge fund portfolios held Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 56 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) and shared the list of best engineering stocks to buy in 2026. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2026 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
