Short Interest in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) Drops By 6.4%

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,240,000 shares, a decline of 6.4% from the October 15th total of 4,530,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 636,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.7 days. Approximately 9.8% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Granite Construction Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of Granite Construction stock traded up $0.38 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $95.99. 6,452 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 538,999. The company has a 50 day moving average of $83.08 and a two-hundred day moving average of $71.40. Granite Construction has a fifty-two week low of $43.92 and a fifty-two week high of $99.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The stock has a market cap of $4.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.86 and a beta of 1.39.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last announced 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). The company had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. Granite Construction had a return on equity of 19.04% and a net margin of 2.80%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.69 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Granite Construction will post 4.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.85%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Granite Construction from $61.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th.

Institutional Trading of Granite Construction

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Millennium Management LLC increased 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 acquiring an additional 1,280,288 shares during the period. Hood River Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Granite Construction in the second quarter worth $29,143,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Granite Construction by 86.4% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 363,816 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $28,843,000 after purchasing an additional 168,673 shares in the last quarter. Brightline Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Granite Construction during the third quarter worth about $11,971,000. Finally, Highbridge Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Granite Construction during the second quarter worth about $4,513,000.

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.