Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) Hits New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $84.55 and last traded at $84.44, with a volume of 1036419 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $82.06.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on 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 Up 2.9 %

The company has a market cap of $3.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.71 and a beta of 1.38. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $78.73 and a 200-day moving average price of $68.34. The company has a quick ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last issued its quarterly 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). The company had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. Granite Construction had a net margin of 2.35% and a return on equity of 17.82%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.69 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 5.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.89%.

Insider Activity at Granite Construction

In other news, SVP Michael G. Tatusko sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were 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 directly owns 21,943 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,518,894.46. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Granite Construction

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in Granite Construction during the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC boosted its position in shares of Granite Construction by 30.8% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC now owns 850 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of Granite Construction by 66.4% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 902 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 360 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Granite Construction during the 2nd quarter worth about $107,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Granite Construction by 82.5% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,007 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $159,000 after purchasing an additional 907 shares in the last quarter.

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.