Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases New Stake in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 22,000 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,119,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System owned about 0.05% of Granite Construction as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GVA. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Granite Construction by 3.1% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 8,192 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $311,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the period. Toth Financial Advisory Corp raised its position in shares of Granite Construction by 35.1% during the fourth quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 2,500 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $127,000 after purchasing an additional 650 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the third quarter worth about $27,000. Rock Point Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Granite Construction by 0.9% during the third quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 138,430 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $5,263,000 after purchasing an additional 1,172 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank raised its position in Granite Construction by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 96,400 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $3,665,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter.

Granite Construction Stock Up 2.4 %

GVA stock opened at $54.89 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.49, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $53.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $48.07. The company has a market cap of $2.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.13 and a beta of 1.46. Granite Construction Incorporated has a twelve month low of $33.74 and a twelve month high of $57.93.

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

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.95%. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.42%.

Insider Transactions at Granite Construction

In other news, Director Louis E. Caldera sold 1,263 shares of Granite Construction stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $63,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,528 shares in the company, valued at approximately $426,400. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Granite Construction from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. DA Davidson lifted their target price on 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 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.