Short Interest in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) Grows By 8.0%

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,020,000 shares, a growth of 8.0% from the May 31st total of 4,650,000 shares. Approximately 11.5% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 437,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 11.5 days.

Granite Construction Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GVA traded up $1.12 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $61.69. The company had a trading volume of 158,762 shares, compared to its average volume of 421,281. The company has a current ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. Granite Construction has a 1-year low of $33.74 and a 1-year high of $65.08. The stock has a market cap of $2.72 billion, a PE ratio of 104.56 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $60.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $54.51.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The construction company reported ($0.21) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.49) by $0.28. The business had revenue of $672.28 million for the quarter. Granite Construction had a net margin of 0.98% and a return on equity of 14.91%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Granite Construction will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. Granite Construction’s payout ratio is 88.14%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Granite Construction from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Bradley Jay Williams sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.21, for a total value of $45,907.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 7,423 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $454,361.83. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Granite Construction

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GVA. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in Granite Construction during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC boosted its position in Granite Construction by 30.8% during the first quarter. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC now owns 850 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Riverview Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Granite Construction in the first quarter valued at $107,000. Toth Financial Advisory Corp raised its holdings in shares of Granite Construction by 35.1% in the 4th quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 2,500 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $127,000 after purchasing an additional 650 shares during the period. Finally, Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Granite Construction in the first quarter valued at approximately $217,000.

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.