South Dakota Investment Council Purchases New Position in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

South Dakota Investment Council bought a new stake in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 6,000 shares of the construction company's stock, valued at approximately $452,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Federated Hermes Inc. purchased a new stake in Granite Construction in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Granite Construction by 214.2% in the 1st quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 377 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP lifted its stake in Granite Construction by 68.4% in the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 325 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 132 shares in the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC raised its holdings in Granite Construction by 80.3% in the 1st quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 640 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 285 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC raised its holdings in Granite Construction by 26.5% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 674 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the last quarter.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kyle T. Larkin sold 3,617 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.38, for a total transaction of $290,734.46. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 132,366 shares in the company, valued at $10,639,579.08. This represents a 2.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Brian R. Dowd sold 2,025 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.76, for a total value of $185,814.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 18,819 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,726,831.44. The trade was a 9.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Granite Construction Trading Down 1.0%

GVA traded down $0.95 during trading on Thursday, hitting $94.94. The company's stock had a trading volume of 146,425 shares, compared to its average volume of 612,698. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $90.92 and its 200-day moving average price is $84.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.57 and a quick ratio of 1.44. The stock has a market cap of $4.15 billion, a PE ratio of 39.56 and a beta of 1.32. Granite Construction Incorporated has a twelve month low of $65.13 and a twelve month high of $105.20.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The construction company reported $0.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 21.40% and a net margin of 3.07%. Granite Construction's revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 5.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 30th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. Granite Construction's payout ratio is 21.67%.

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.