Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) Hits New 12-Month High at $79.50

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $79.50 and last traded at $78.86, with a volume of 6128 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $77.50.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Granite Construction from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd.

Granite Construction Stock Down 0.1 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $70.94 and its 200-day moving average is $62.88. The company has a market cap of $3.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 136.07 and a beta of 1.39.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The construction company reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. Granite Construction had a net margin of 2.35% and a return on equity of 17.82%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.03 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 5.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. Granite Construction’s payout ratio is currently 88.14%.

Insider Activity at Granite Construction

In other Granite Construction news, SVP Michael G. Tatusko sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.22, for a total transaction of $346,100.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 21,943 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,518,894.46. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Granite Construction

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in Granite Construction by 5.8% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 24,580 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,523,000 after acquiring an additional 1,349 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in Granite Construction by 99.3% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,569,319 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $159,221,000 after acquiring an additional 1,280,288 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in Granite Construction by 7.6% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 11,490 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $712,000 after acquiring an additional 813 shares during the last quarter. Caxton Associates LP bought a new position in Granite Construction during the second quarter valued at approximately $503,000. Finally, III Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Granite Construction in the second quarter worth approximately $849,000.

Granite Construction Company Profile

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.