Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,880,000 shares, an increase of 8.5% from the June 30th total of 5,420,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 608,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 9.7 days. Approximately 13.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Granite Construction Stock Up 4.8 %

Shares of Granite Construction stock traded up $3.32 on Thursday, hitting $71.78. 131,695 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 491,200. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $62.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $56.48. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. Granite Construction has a 12-month low of $33.74 and a 12-month high of $73.01. The company has a market cap of $3.17 billion, a PE ratio of 115.88 and a beta of 1.41.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The construction company reported ($0.21) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.49) by $0.28. Granite Construction had a net margin of 0.98% and a return on equity of 14.91%. The business had revenue of $672.28 million for the quarter. Sell-side analysts predict that Granite Construction will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th were paid a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 28th. Granite Construction’s payout ratio is presently 88.14%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Granite Construction from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Granite Construction news, SVP Bradley Jay Williams sold 750 shares of Granite Construction stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.21, for a total value of $45,907.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 7,423 shares in the company, valued at $454,361.83. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Granite Construction

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC lifted its stake in shares of Granite Construction by 21.6% in the 4th quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 1,388,044 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $70,596,000 after purchasing an additional 246,154 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Granite Construction by 637.4% in the 1st 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 during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Granite Construction by 8.4% in the 4th 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. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Granite Construction by 15.4% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 533,324 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $27,125,000 after purchasing an additional 71,099 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RPG Investment Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Granite Construction by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. RPG Investment Advisory LLC now owns 295,031 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $15,005,000 after purchasing an additional 5,412 shares during the last quarter.

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.