Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Lowers Position in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lowered its stake in shares of Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) by 6.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 34,391 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 2,346 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned approximately 0.08% of Granite Construction worth $2,727,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Granite Construction by 99.3% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,569,319 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $159,221,000 after buying an additional 1,280,288 shares during the last quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Granite Construction during the second quarter valued at about $29,143,000. Highbridge Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Granite Construction during the second quarter valued at about $4,513,000. Aristeia Capital L.L.C. acquired a new stake in Granite Construction during the second quarter worth about $4,513,000. Finally, Comerica Bank raised its holdings in shares of Granite Construction by 177.6% in the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 113,514 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $6,485,000 after purchasing an additional 72,621 shares during the period.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Granite Construction from $61.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th.

Granite Construction Stock Performance

Shares of GVA stock opened at $98.78 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The company has a market cap of $4.32 billion, a PE ratio of 45.31 and a beta of 1.39. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $85.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $73.01. Granite Construction Incorporated has a 52 week low of $43.92 and a 52 week high of $100.57.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The construction company reported $2.05 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.51 by ($0.46). Granite Construction had a net margin of 2.80% and a return on equity of 19.04%. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 4.98 EPS for the current year.

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.85%.

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.