Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) Hits New 52-Week High at $59.15

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $59.15 and last traded at $58.56, with a volume of 59972 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $57.26.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Granite Construction from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. DA Davidson increased their price target on shares of Granite Construction from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th.

Granite Construction Stock Up 3.7 %

The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $54.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $49.14. The firm has a market cap of $2.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 100.66 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.51 and a quick ratio of 1.49.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The construction company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.84 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $933.70 million during the quarter. Granite Construction had a net margin of 0.98% and a return on equity of 14.91%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 88.14%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Louis E. Caldera sold 1,263 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $63,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,528 shares in the company, valued at approximately $426,400. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Granite Construction

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Granite Construction by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 8,379 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $426,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC increased its stake in Granite Construction by 30.8% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC now owns 850 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. 1492 Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Granite Construction by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. 1492 Capital Management LLC now owns 41,068 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,089,000 after buying an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp boosted its stake in shares of Granite Construction by 35.1% during the 4th quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 2,500 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $127,000 after buying an additional 650 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of Granite Construction in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000.

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.