Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) Short Interest Update

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 4,300,000 shares, a decrease of 10.6% from the September 15th total of 4,810,000 shares. Approximately 9.9% of the company's stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 657,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.5 days.

Granite Construction Stock Performance

Shares of GVA stock traded down $0.77 during trading on Thursday, reaching $81.85. 613,295 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 512,322. Granite Construction has a 1 year low of $33.74 and a 1 year high of $83.28. The company has a market capitalization of $3.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 138.73 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The firm's 50-day moving average is $75.71 and its 200 day moving average is $66.17.

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

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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 (DPR) is currently 88.14%.

Insider Transactions at Granite Construction

In related news, SVP Michael G. Tatusko sold 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 21,943 shares of the company's stock, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Granite Construction

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GVA. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in Granite Construction by 99.3% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,569,319 shares of the construction company's stock worth $159,221,000 after acquiring an additional 1,280,288 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its stake in Granite Construction by 637.4% in the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 936,858 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $53,523,000 after purchasing an additional 809,803 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Granite Construction by 8.4% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 639,849 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $32,543,000 after purchasing an additional 49,610 shares during the last quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Granite Construction in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,143,000. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Granite Construction by 51.0% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 152,730 shares of the construction company's stock worth $8,725,000 after buying an additional 51,597 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.