Principal Financial Group Inc. Reduces Position in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA - Free Report) by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 206,825 shares of the construction company's stock after selling 12,297 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.47% of Granite Construction worth $16,397,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the 1st quarter valued at about $607,000. Comerica Bank lifted its position in Granite Construction by 177.6% in the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 113,514 shares of the construction company's stock worth $6,485,000 after buying an additional 72,621 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Granite Construction by 296.6% during the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 13,138 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $751,000 after buying an additional 9,825 shares during the last quarter. Castleark Management LLC increased its stake in Granite Construction by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Castleark Management LLC now owns 72,580 shares of the construction company's stock worth $4,146,000 after buying an additional 2,960 shares during the period. Finally, Highbridge Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Granite Construction during the 2nd quarter valued at $4,513,000.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Granite Construction Price Performance

GVA stock traded down $0.13 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $95.61. The stock had a trading volume of 321,953 shares, compared to its average volume of 541,398. The company has a market cap of $4.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.86 and a beta of 1.39. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $83.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $71.28. Granite Construction Incorporated has a 52-week low of $43.92 and a 52-week high of $99.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The construction company reported $2.05 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.51 by ($0.46). The company had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.29 billion. Granite Construction had a return on equity of 19.04% and a net margin of 2.80%. The firm's revenue was up 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.69 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 5.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $0.13 dividend. 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 0.54%. 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.