Granite Construction Incorporated $GVA Shares Sold by Engineers Gate Manager LP

Engineers Gate Manager LP trimmed its holdings in shares of Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) by 27.6% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 16,820 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 6,398 shares during the period. Engineers Gate Manager LP’s holdings in Granite Construction were worth $2,659,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Granite Construction by 15,267.0% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 8,048,327 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,272,280,000 after acquiring an additional 7,995,953 shares during the period. Hill City Capital LP acquired a new position in Granite Construction during the second quarter worth $175,508,004. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in Granite Construction by 52.8% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,397,573 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $167,541,000 after purchasing an additional 483,080 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Granite Construction during the fourth quarter worth $36,405,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in Granite Construction during the first quarter worth $25,562,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on GVA. Zacks Research raised Granite Construction to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Granite Construction from $139.00 to $119.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Granite Construction from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Granite Construction from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, July 18th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Granite Construction from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Granite Construction presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $158.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Carlos M. Hernandez bought 400 shares of Granite Construction stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $123.99 per share, for a total transaction of $49,596.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 5,033 shares in the company, valued at approximately $624,041.67. This trade represents a 8.63% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Granite Construction Stock Performance

Granite Construction stock opened at $114.34 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.01. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $123.26 and a two-hundred day moving average of $129.68. The company has a market capitalization of $5.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -26.53 and a beta of 1.32. Granite Construction Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $97.26 and a fifty-two week high of $162.08.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The construction company reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.25 by ($0.09). Granite Construction had a positive return on equity of 27.83% and a negative net margin of 3.32%.The company had revenue of $1.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.42 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 28.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 6.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 30th will be paid a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 30th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. Granite Construction’s payout ratio is presently -12.06%.

About Granite Construction

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) is a civil infrastructure contractor that delivers construction and engineering services for public and private-sector customers. The company’s work includes the development and rehabilitation of transportation infrastructure such as highways, roads, bridges, airports, rail systems and mass-transit facilities.

Granite also provides services for water and wastewater systems, dams, utilities and other complex infrastructure projects. Its capabilities include project development, construction management, design-build delivery, general contracting, excavation, paving and related construction services.