Hennessy Advisors Inc. Buys New Holdings in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 696,000 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $61,046,000. Granite Construction comprises approximately 1.8% of Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Hennessy Advisors Inc. owned 1.59% of Granite Construction at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in Granite Construction by 99.3% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,569,319 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $159,221,000 after purchasing an additional 1,280,288 shares during the period. Hood River Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Granite Construction during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,143,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Granite Construction by 86.4% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 363,816 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $28,843,000 after purchasing an additional 168,673 shares during the period. Brightline Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Granite Construction during the 3rd quarter worth about $11,971,000. Finally, Aristeia Capital L.L.C. bought a new position in shares of Granite Construction in the 2nd quarter worth $4,513,000.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Granite Construction from $61.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th.

Granite Construction Price Performance

GVA opened at $92.18 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $93.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $80.98. The company has a market capitalization of $4.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.28 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.56 and a quick ratio of 1.46. Granite Construction Incorporated has a 1 year low of $43.92 and a 1 year high of $105.20.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The construction company reported $2.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.51 by ($0.46). Granite Construction had a return on equity of 19.04% and a net margin of 2.80%. The firm had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 4.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.85%.

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.