Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) Short Interest Up 5.4% in July

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,200,000 shares, an increase of 5.4% from the July 15th total of 5,880,000 shares. Approximately 14.3% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 671,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 9.2 days.

Granite Construction Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of GVA traded up $0.87 on Friday, hitting $70.99. 431,599 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 501,516. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $64.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.68. Granite Construction has a one year low of $33.74 and a one year high of $73.01. The company has a market capitalization of $3.13 billion, a PE ratio of 120.32 and a beta of 1.41.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The construction company reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.41. Granite Construction had a return on equity of 17.82% and a net margin of 2.35%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.03 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 20.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Granite Construction will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 28th were paid a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 28th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio is presently 88.14%.

Insider Activity at Granite Construction

In other news, SVP Michael G. Tatusko sold 5,000 shares of Granite Construction stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.22, for a total transaction of $346,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 21,943 shares in the company, valued at $1,518,894.46. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GVA. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in Granite Construction in the second quarter worth about $33,000. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in Granite Construction during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC lifted its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Granite Construction during the second quarter valued at approximately $107,000. Finally, Riverview Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Granite Construction in the first quarter worth approximately $107,000.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Granite Construction from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd.

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.