Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) Short Interest Down 6.4% in October

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

Granite Construction Stock Performance

GVA opened at $96.43 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $83.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $71.40. Granite Construction has a 52-week low of $43.92 and a 52-week high of $99.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.21 billion, a PE ratio of 44.23 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). Granite Construction had a return on equity of 19.04% and a net margin of 2.80%. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.69 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Granite Construction will post 4.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.85%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Granite Construction

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GVA. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in Granite Construction during the second quarter worth approximately $33,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Granite Construction by 66.4% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 902 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $72,000 after acquiring an additional 360 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Granite Construction during the 2nd quarter valued at $107,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Granite Construction by 82.5% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,007 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $159,000 after purchasing an additional 907 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new position in shares of Granite Construction in the third quarter valued at about $203,000.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.