Marshall Wace LLP Sells 136,481 Shares of Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

Marshall Wace LLP reduced its position in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA - Free Report) by 76.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 42,601 shares of the construction company's stock after selling 136,481 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP owned approximately 0.10% of Granite Construction worth $2,640,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Granite Construction in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC boosted its holdings 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 valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Riverview Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Granite Construction during the first quarter valued at approximately $107,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Granite Construction in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $107,000. Finally, Bard Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in Granite Construction during the 2nd quarter worth $215,000.

Insider Buying and Selling at Granite Construction

In related news, SVP Michael G. Tatusko sold 5,000 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Granite Construction Price Performance

Granite Construction stock traded up $1.64 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $81.16. 174,446 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 508,755. Granite Construction Incorporated has a 1-year low of $33.74 and a 1-year high of $81.38. The firm has a market cap of $3.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 134.78 and a beta of 1.38. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $73.43 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $64.50. 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 issued 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 return on equity of 17.82% and a net margin of 2.35%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.03 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 20.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 5.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. Granite Construction's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 88.14%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Granite Construction from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd.

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.