Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) Hits New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) shares hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $116.74 and last traded at $115.7840, with a volume of 565527 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $115.08.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GVA. Zacks Research downgraded Granite Construction from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Granite Construction in a report on Monday, November 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $109.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Granite Construction in a research report on Monday, December 8th. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Granite Construction from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Granite Construction from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Granite Construction currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $119.50.

Granite Construction Stock Up 0.6%

The firm has a market cap of $5.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.37 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $105.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $101.84.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The construction company reported $2.70 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.56 by $0.14. Granite Construction had a return on equity of 24.04% and a net margin of 4.31%.The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.51 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.05 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 5.49 EPS for the current year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 31st. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.99%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Celeste Beeks Mastin sold 7,614 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.23, for a total value of $801,221.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 10,206 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,073,977.38. The trade was a 42.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Granite Construction

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Granite Construction by 12.4% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 652,759 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $49,218,000 after buying an additional 72,175 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Granite Construction in the first quarter valued at $21,966,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in Granite Construction by 116.8% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 48,365 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $3,647,000 after acquiring an additional 26,053 shares during the period. Ethic Inc. increased its stake in Granite Construction by 12.0% during the first quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 6,959 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $531,000 after acquiring an additional 748 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versor Investments LP increased its stake in Granite Construction by 49.3% during the first quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 14,750 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,112,000 after acquiring an additional 4,872 shares during the last quarter.

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.