John G Ullman & Associates Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

John G Ullman & Associates Inc. cut its position in shares of Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 121,660 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 4,200 shares during the period. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. owned 0.28% of Granite Construction worth $6,188,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Granite Construction by 0.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,107,922 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $167,539,000 after buying an additional 44,497 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Granite Construction by 58.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,764,283 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $70,544,000 after purchasing an additional 1,019,112 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Granite Construction by 2.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,390,934 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $78,422,000 after purchasing an additional 47,937 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Granite Construction by 4.4% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 989,161 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $37,608,000 after purchasing an additional 41,575 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in Granite Construction by 5.1% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 918,536 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $37,733,000 after purchasing an additional 44,227 shares in the last quarter.

Insider Buying and Selling at Granite Construction

In other Granite Construction news, Director Louis E. Caldera sold 1,263 shares of Granite Construction stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $63,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 8,528 shares in the company, valued at $426,400. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GVA has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Granite Construction from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday. DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Granite Construction from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th.

Granite Construction Trading Down 0.9 %

Granite Construction stock traded down $0.48 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $53.20. 143,339 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 373,323. Granite Construction Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $33.74 and a fifty-two week high of $57.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 70.64 and a beta of 1.46. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $53.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The construction company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.84 by ($0.02). Granite Construction had a return on equity of 14.15% and a net margin of 1.24%. The firm had revenue of $933.70 million for the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.42%.

Granite Construction Company Profile

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.