Norges Bank Acquires New Position in Granite Construction Incorporated $GVA

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 315,601 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,405,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GVA. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Granite Construction by 73.2% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,379 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,612,000 after buying an additional 9,038 shares during the last quarter. United Services Automobile Association bought a new stake in Granite Construction in the first quarter valued at about $207,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its holdings in Granite Construction by 21.1% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 168,859 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $12,732,000 after buying an additional 29,428 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in Granite Construction by 2,423.4% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 89,882 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $8,405,000 after buying an additional 86,320 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new stake in Granite Construction during the second quarter valued at $229,000.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on GVA. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Granite Construction from a “buy (b)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Zacks Research raised Granite Construction to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. DA Davidson upped their target price on Granite Construction from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Wall Street Zen lowered Granite Construction from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer started coverage on Granite Construction in a report on Thursday, May 28th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 target price for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $149.67.

Granite Construction Stock Down 1.0%

Granite Construction stock opened at $139.87 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $130.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $124.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.31 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.09. Granite Construction Incorporated has a one year low of $87.72 and a one year high of $145.00.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The construction company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.77) by $1.03. Granite Construction had a net margin of 3.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The business had revenue of $912.47 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $782.26 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.01 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 30.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 5.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 30th. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio is 14.99%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Kyle T. Larkin sold 26,651 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.12, for a total value of $3,148,016.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 114,881 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,569,743.72. This represents a 18.83% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Staci M. Woolsey sold 1,523 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.84, for a total value of $182,516.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 18,954 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,271,447.36. This trade represents a 7.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 49,722 shares of company stock valued at $6,214,036. 0.88% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Granite Construction

Granite Construction Inc is a publicly traded heavy civil contractor and construction materials producer based in Watsonville, California. The company specializes in delivering large-scale infrastructure projects for government and private clients, focusing on the development, rehabilitation and maintenance of transportation, water resource and industrial facilities. Its turnkey solutions span the full project lifecycle, from preconstruction and design-build to construction management and facilities maintenance.

In its construction segment, Granite undertakes highway and bridge building, airport runway and taxiway construction, marine terminal and port improvements, dam and reservoir projects, transit systems and underground utilities.