Hedges Asset Management LLC Invests $238,000 in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

Hedges Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 3,000 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $238,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. BayBridge Capital Group LLC purchased a new stake in Granite Construction in the 3rd quarter valued at $551,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in Granite Construction by 66.4% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 902 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 360 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its position in Granite Construction by 168.3% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 8,827 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $700,000 after purchasing an additional 5,537 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Granite Construction by 82.5% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,007 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $159,000 after purchasing an additional 907 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in Granite Construction by 82.5% in the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 10,837 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $859,000 after purchasing an additional 4,900 shares during the last quarter.

Granite Construction Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of Granite Construction stock opened at $81.62 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $3.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 138.34 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a current ratio of 1.68. Granite Construction Incorporated has a one year low of $33.74 and a one year high of $84.10. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $77.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $67.53.

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

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.64%. Granite Construction’s payout ratio is currently 88.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Michael G. Tatusko sold 5,000 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of 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.