Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) Reaches New 52-Week High at $69.00

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $69.00 and last traded at $69.00, with a volume of 1100 shares. The stock had previously closed at $68.83.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Granite Construction Stock Up 0.2 %

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $62.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 116.66 and a beta of 1.41.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The construction company reported ($0.21) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.49) by $0.28. Granite Construction had a net margin of 0.98% and a return on equity of 14.91%. The company had revenue of $672.28 million during the quarter. Research analysts expect that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 4.76 EPS for the current year.

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 28th were paid a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 28th. Granite Construction’s payout ratio is presently 88.14%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Granite Construction news, SVP Bradley Jay Williams sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.21, for a total value of $45,907.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 7,423 shares in the company, valued at $454,361.83. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Granite Construction

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Granite Construction by 637.4% in the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 936,858 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $53,523,000 after purchasing an additional 809,803 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Granite Construction in the fourth quarter worth $13,755,000. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC increased its holdings in shares of Granite Construction by 21.6% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Granite Construction in the 4th quarter worth about $3,814,000. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in Granite Construction by 208.9% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 110,773 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $6,328,000 after purchasing an additional 74,912 shares in the last quarter.

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.