Cannell & Spears LLC Sells 9,222 Shares of Granite Construction Incorporated $GVA

Cannell & Spears LLC lowered its position in shares of Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) by 19.0% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 39,249 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 9,222 shares during the quarter. Cannell & Spears LLC’s holdings in Granite Construction were worth $4,304,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cartenna Capital LP increased its position in shares of Granite Construction by 22.0% in the third quarter. Cartenna Capital LP now owns 610,000 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $66,886,000 after acquiring an additional 110,000 shares during the period. Bridgefront Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the third quarter worth about $850,000. Boothbay Fund Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Granite Construction by 9.1% during the third quarter. Boothbay Fund Management LLC now owns 160,331 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $17,580,000 after purchasing an additional 13,401 shares during the period. Creative Planning grew its stake in shares of Granite Construction by 27.9% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 22,184 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,432,000 after purchasing an additional 4,839 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SummitTX Capital L.P. increased its holdings in Granite Construction by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. SummitTX Capital L.P. now owns 23,312 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $2,556,000 after purchasing an additional 754 shares during the period.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on GVA. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Granite Construction in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Zacks Research upgraded Granite Construction from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Wall Street Zen raised Granite Construction from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 28th. DA Davidson upped their target price on Granite Construction from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Granite Construction from $109.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $139.50.

Granite Construction Price Performance

GVA stock opened at $120.75 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.13. Granite Construction Incorporated has a 1 year low of $69.08 and a 1 year high of $137.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $126.22 and a 200 day moving average of $114.47. The company has a market cap of $5.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.99 and a beta of 1.30.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The construction company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.06. Granite Construction had a return on equity of 24.10% and a net margin of 4.36%.The business had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 19.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 5.49 EPS for the current year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be paid a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 31st. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.21%.

About Granite Construction

Granite Construction Inc is a publicly traded heavy civil contractor and construction materials producer based in Watsonville, California. The company specializes in delivering large-scale infrastructure projects for government and private clients, focusing on the development, rehabilitation and maintenance of transportation, water resource and industrial facilities. Its turnkey solutions span the full project lifecycle, from preconstruction and design-build to construction management and facilities maintenance.

In its construction segment, Granite undertakes highway and bridge building, airport runway and taxiway construction, marine terminal and port improvements, dam and reservoir projects, transit systems and underground utilities.