Wasatch Advisors LP Increases Stake in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its stake in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) by 637.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 936,858 shares of the construction company’s stock after purchasing an additional 809,803 shares during the quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP owned about 2.13% of Granite Construction worth $53,523,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the 4th quarter worth approximately $13,755,000. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC grew 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 worth $70,596,000 after purchasing an additional 246,154 shares during the period. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. acquired a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $8,554,000. Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,814,000. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Granite Construction by 15.4% during the 4th 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.

Insider Activity at Granite Construction

In other Granite Construction news, SVP Bradley Jay Williams sold 750 shares of Granite Construction stock in a transaction dated 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 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 SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Granite Construction Price Performance

Granite Construction stock opened at $60.57 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $60.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $54.46. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $2.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 102.66 and a beta of 1.41. Granite Construction Incorporated has a 1 year low of $33.74 and a 1 year high of $65.08.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The construction company reported ($0.21) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 research analysts anticipate that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.86%. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.