ProShare Advisors LLC Sells 2,098 Shares of Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

ProShare Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) by 23.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,793 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 2,098 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Granite Construction were worth $421,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GVA. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Granite Construction by 637.4% in the first 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 during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Granite Construction in the 4th quarter worth $13,755,000. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC increased its position in shares of Granite Construction by 21.6% in 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 during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Granite Construction during the fourth quarter valued at about $3,814,000. Finally, Highbridge Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the second quarter worth about $4,513,000.

Insider Activity at Granite Construction

In other Granite Construction news, SVP Michael G. Tatusko sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.22, for a total transaction of $346,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 21,943 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,518,894.46. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on 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 Up 0.1 %

Shares of Granite Construction stock opened at $79.37 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. Granite Construction Incorporated has a 12-month low of $33.74 and a 12-month high of $81.38. The company has a market cap of $3.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 134.53 and a beta of 1.39. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $72.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $64.10.

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

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. Granite Construction’s payout ratio is presently 88.14%.

Granite Construction 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.