Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) was the target of a large growth in short interest in July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,880,000 shares, a growth of 8.5% from the June 30th total of 5,420,000 shares. Approximately 13.5% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 608,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 9.7 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Granite Construction news, SVP Bradley Jay Williams sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.21, for a total value of $45,907.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,423 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $454,361.83. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Granite Construction

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. lifted its position in shares of Granite Construction by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. now owns 38,191 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,365,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Granite Construction by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 8,379 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $426,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares during the period. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC lifted its position in shares of Granite Construction by 30.8% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC now owns 850 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. 1492 Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Granite Construction by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. 1492 Capital Management LLC now owns 41,068 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,089,000 after purchasing an additional 275 shares during the period. Finally, Alpha Cubed Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Granite Construction by 7.2% in the 2nd quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 4,553 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 305 shares during the period.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Granite Construction Price Performance

Shares of Granite Construction stock traded up $3.32 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $71.78. 131,695 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 491,200. Granite Construction has a 12 month low of $33.74 and a 12 month high of $73.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.51. The stock has a market cap of $3.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 115.88 and a beta of 1.41. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $62.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $56.48.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The construction company reported ($0.21) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.49) by $0.28. Granite Construction had a net margin of 0.98% and a return on equity of 14.91%. The firm had revenue of $672.28 million for the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Granite Construction will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 28th. Granite Construction’s payout ratio is 88.14%.

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.