Principal Financial Group Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its holdings in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 206,825 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 12,297 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Granite Construction were worth $16,397,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Granite Construction by 99.3% in 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 period. Hood River Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Granite Construction in the second quarter valued at approximately $29,143,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Granite Construction by 86.4% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 363,816 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $28,843,000 after acquiring an additional 168,673 shares during the period. Brightline Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Granite Construction in the third quarter valued at approximately $11,971,000. Finally, Highbridge Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Granite Construction in the second quarter valued at approximately $4,513,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Granite Construction from $61.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th.

Granite Construction Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of Granite Construction stock opened at $89.10 on Friday. Granite Construction Incorporated has a 1 year low of $43.92 and a 1 year high of $105.20. The firm has a market cap of $3.89 billion, a PE ratio of 40.87 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.56 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $92.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $78.16.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The construction company reported $2.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.51 by ($0.46). Granite Construction had a net margin of 2.80% and a return on equity of 19.04%. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 4.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. Granite Construction’s payout ratio is presently 23.85%.

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.