Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) Short Interest Down 14.9% in August

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,010,000 shares, a decline of 14.9% from the August 15th total of 5,890,000 shares. Currently, 11.6% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 667,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.5 days.

Insider Transactions at Granite Construction

In other news, SVP Michael G. Tatusko sold 5,000 shares of Granite Construction stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at $1,518,894.46. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the second quarter worth about $33,000. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC increased its stake in shares of Granite Construction by 30.8% during the first quarter. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC now owns 850 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the second quarter worth about $107,000. Riverview Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the first quarter worth about $107,000. Finally, Bard Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the second quarter worth about $215,000.

Granite Construction Stock Performance

GVA traded up $0.89 on Monday, reaching $77.26. The stock had a trading volume of 276,728 shares, compared to its average volume of 494,485. Granite Construction has a 12-month low of $33.74 and a 12-month high of $77.78. 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 business’s 50-day moving average price is $69.19 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $62.09. The company has a market cap of $3.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 131.42 and a beta of 1.39.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The construction company reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.41. Granite Construction had a net margin of 2.35% and a return on equity of 17.82%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.03 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Granite Construction will post 5.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. Granite Construction’s payout ratio is 88.14%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Granite Construction from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock 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.