John G Ullman & Associates Inc. Reduces Holdings in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

John G Ullman & Associates Inc. lowered its position in shares of Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 121,660 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 4,200 shares during the period. John G Ullman & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Granite Construction were worth $6,188,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the fourth quarter worth approximately $518,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,119,000. RPG Investment Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Granite Construction by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. RPG Investment Advisory LLC now owns 295,031 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $15,005,000 after buying an additional 5,412 shares in the last quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp grew its position in shares of Granite Construction by 35.1% during the fourth quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 2,500 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $127,000 after buying an additional 650 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the fourth quarter worth approximately $388,000.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Louis E. Caldera sold 1,263 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $63,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 8,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $426,400. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Granite Construction Stock Performance

Granite Construction stock traded down $0.48 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $53.20. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 143,339 shares, compared to its average volume of 373,323. The firm has a market cap of $2.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 70.64 and a beta of 1.46. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $53.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $47.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. Granite Construction Incorporated has a twelve month low of $33.74 and a twelve month high of $57.93.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The construction company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.84 by ($0.02). Granite Construction had a net margin of 1.24% and a return on equity of 14.15%. The firm had revenue of $933.70 million for the quarter. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.42%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of Granite Construction from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. 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 report on Tuesday.

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.