Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) Sees Strong Trading Volume

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) shares saw unusually-strong trading volume on Wednesday . Approximately 880,556 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 87% from the previous session’s volume of 470,710 shares.The stock last traded at $67.90 and had previously closed at $67.64.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Granite Construction from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th.

Granite Construction Trading Up 3.7 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $62.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $55.94. The stock has a market cap of $3.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 114.85 and a beta of 1.41.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The construction company reported ($0.21) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.49) by $0.28. The business had revenue of $672.28 million for the quarter. Granite Construction had a return on equity of 14.91% and a net margin of 0.98%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 4.76 EPS for the current year.

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 28th were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 28th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 88.14%.

Insider Activity

In other Granite Construction news, SVP Bradley Jay Williams sold 750 shares of Granite Construction stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.21, for a total value of $45,907.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,423 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $454,361.83. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Granite Construction

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GVA. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC increased its stake in shares of Granite Construction by 21.6% during the 4th quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 1,388,044 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $70,596,000 after acquiring an additional 246,154 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its holdings in Granite Construction by 637.4% in the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 936,858 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $53,523,000 after purchasing an additional 809,803 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Granite Construction by 8.4% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 639,849 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $32,543,000 after purchasing an additional 49,610 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in Granite Construction by 15.4% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 533,324 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $27,125,000 after purchasing an additional 71,099 shares during the period. Finally, RPG Investment Advisory LLC raised its stake in Granite Construction by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. RPG Investment Advisory LLC now owns 295,031 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $15,005,000 after purchasing an additional 5,412 shares during the period.

About Granite Construction

Granite Construction Incorporated operates as an infrastructure contractor in the United States. It operates through two segments: Construction and Materials segments. The Construction segment engages in the construction and rehabilitation of roads, pavement preservation, bridges, rail lines, airports, marine ports, dams, reservoirs, aqueducts, infrastructure, and site development for use by the public and water-related construction for municipal agencies, commercial water suppliers, industrial facilities, and energy companies; and construction of various complex projects, including infrastructure/site development, mining, public safety, tunnel, solar storage, and power related projects.