Highbridge Capital Management LLC Invests $4.51 Million in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

Highbridge Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 72,824 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,513,000. Highbridge Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.16% of Granite Construction as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GVA. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its holdings in Granite Construction by 637.4% during the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 936,858 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $53,523,000 after buying an additional 809,803 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Granite Construction during the fourth quarter valued at $13,755,000. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC increased its holdings in Granite Construction by 21.6% in the 4th quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 1,388,044 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $70,596,000 after acquiring an additional 246,154 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Granite Construction in the 4th quarter worth $3,814,000. Finally, Comerica Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Granite Construction by 177.6% during the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 113,514 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $6,485,000 after purchasing an additional 72,621 shares during the last quarter.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Granite Construction from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Granite Construction news, SVP Michael G. Tatusko sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.22, for a total value of $346,100.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 21,943 shares in the company, valued at $1,518,894.46. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Granite Construction Trading Down 0.3 %

GVA opened at $77.44 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $70.24 and a 200 day moving average of $62.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. Granite Construction Incorporated has a 12 month low of $33.74 and a 12 month high of $79.17. The firm has a market cap of $3.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 131.25 and a beta of 1.39.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The construction company reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.41. Granite Construction had a net margin of 2.35% and a return on equity of 17.82%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.03 earnings per share. Granite Construction’s quarterly revenue was up 20.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 5.24 EPS for the current year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Granite Construction’s payout ratio is 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.