Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) Hits New 1-Year High - Here's Why

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA - Get Free Report)'s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $84.05 and last traded at $83.01, with a volume of 78399 shares. The stock had previously closed at $82.23.

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 Up 1.8 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $76.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 141.85 and a beta of 1.38.

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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.41. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. Granite Construction had a return on equity of 17.82% and a net margin of 2.35%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 20.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.03 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 5.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. Granite Construction's payout ratio is currently 88.14%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Michael G. Tatusko sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.22, for a total transaction of $346,100.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 21,943 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,518,894.46. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Millennium Management LLC increased its position 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 valued at $159,221,000 after purchasing an additional 1,280,288 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its position in Granite Construction by 637.4% in the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 936,858 shares of the construction company's stock worth $53,523,000 after acquiring an additional 809,803 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in Granite Construction by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 639,849 shares of the construction company's stock worth $32,543,000 after acquiring an additional 49,610 shares during the period. Hood River Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Granite Construction during the 2nd quarter worth $29,143,000. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in shares of Granite Construction by 51.0% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 152,730 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $8,725,000 after acquiring an additional 51,597 shares during the period.

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.