Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) Shares Bought by Handelsbanken Fonder AB

Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its stake in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) by 82.5% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 10,837 shares of the construction company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,900 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Granite Construction were worth $859,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Granite Construction in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC lifted its stake in shares of Granite Construction by 30.8% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC now owns 850 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Granite Construction during the second quarter valued at approximately $107,000. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new stake in Granite Construction during the first quarter valued at approximately $107,000. Finally, Bard Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Granite Construction during the second quarter valued at approximately $215,000.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Granite Construction from $61.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday.

Granite Construction Stock Up 1.5 %

GVA stock opened at $81.78 on Friday. Granite Construction Incorporated has a 12 month low of $33.74 and a 12 month high of $82.45. The firm has a market cap of $3.61 billion, a PE ratio of 138.61 and a beta of 1.38. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $65.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.56.

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

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The company 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 dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio is currently 88.14%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Michael G. Tatusko sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 21,943 shares in the company, valued at $1,518,894.46. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.