Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) Shares Bought by Bayforest Capital Ltd

Bayforest Capital Ltd lifted its position in shares of Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA - Free Report) by 208.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,212 shares of the construction company's stock after acquiring an additional 6,227 shares during the quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd's holdings in Granite Construction were worth $695,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its stake in Granite Construction by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 6,055 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $531,000 after buying an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in Granite Construction in the 4th quarter valued at about $764,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Granite Construction in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,855,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its stake in Granite Construction by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 5,626 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $493,000 after buying an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Granite Construction by 42.8% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 148,313 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $13,009,000 after buying an additional 44,444 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Granite Construction from $69.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th.

Granite Construction Price Performance

Granite Construction stock traded down $2.15 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $92.32. The company had a trading volume of 604,545 shares, compared to its average volume of 611,093. The company has a market capitalization of $4.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.47 and a beta of 1.32. Granite Construction Incorporated has a 12-month low of $65.13 and a 12-month high of $105.20. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $91.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $85.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.57 and a quick ratio of 1.44.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The construction company reported $0.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.43) by $0.44. The company had revenue of $699.55 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $706.15 million. Granite Construction had a net margin of 3.07% and a return on equity of 21.40%. The company's revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 5.49 EPS for the current year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th were issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 30th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Granite Construction's dividend payout ratio is presently 21.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Granite Construction news, SVP Brian R. Dowd sold 2,025 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.76, for a total value of $185,814.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 18,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,726,831.44. This represents a 9.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.81% of the company's stock.

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.