Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Hold”

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Sunday.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on GVA. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Granite Construction from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 12th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Granite Construction in a report on Monday, December 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Granite Construction in a research note on Monday, November 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $109.00 target price for the company. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price target on Granite Construction from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $119.50.

Granite Construction Price Performance

GVA opened at $114.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.02 billion, a PE ratio of 33.13 and a beta of 1.33. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $105.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $101.66. Granite Construction has a 52-week low of $69.08 and a 52-week high of $115.88.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The construction company reported $2.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.56 by $0.14. Granite Construction had a net margin of 4.31% and a return on equity of 24.04%. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.51 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.05 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Granite Construction will post 5.49 EPS for the current year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 31st. Granite Construction’s payout ratio is 14.99%.

Insider Activity at Granite Construction

In other news, Director Celeste Beeks Mastin sold 7,614 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.23, for a total transaction of $801,221.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 10,206 shares in the company, valued at $1,073,977.38. This trade represents a 42.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Granite Construction

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GVA. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Granite Construction by 12.4% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 652,759 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $49,218,000 after buying an additional 72,175 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the first quarter valued at approximately $21,966,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Granite Construction by 116.8% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 48,365 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $3,647,000 after buying an additional 26,053 shares during the last quarter. Ethic Inc. increased its position in shares of Granite Construction by 12.0% during the first quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 6,959 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $531,000 after acquiring an additional 748 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Algert Global LLC lifted its position in Granite Construction by 14.6% in the 1st quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 182,299 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $13,745,000 after acquiring an additional 23,182 shares in the last quarter.

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.