Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) Sets New 12-Month High - What's Next?

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA - Get Free Report) hit a new 52-week high on Monday . The stock traded as high as $82.50 and last traded at $82.46, with a volume of 52425 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $81.78.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Granite Construction Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $3.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 138.17 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $75.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $65.88. 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 - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The construction company reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. Granite Construction had a return on equity of 17.82% and a net margin of 2.35%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 20.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.03 EPS. As a group, equities research 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.64%. Granite Construction's payout ratio is 88.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Michael G. Tatusko sold 5,000 shares of the firm'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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 21,943 shares in the company, valued at $1,518,894.46. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Granite Construction

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in Granite Construction during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Granite Construction in the 1st quarter worth $107,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Granite Construction in the 2nd quarter worth $107,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Granite Construction by 82.5% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,007 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $159,000 after purchasing an additional 907 shares during the last quarter.

About Granite Construction

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.