Comerica Bank Sells 4,795 Shares of Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

Comerica Bank decreased its position in shares of Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA - Free Report) by 4.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 106,199 shares of the construction company's stock after selling 4,795 shares during the quarter. Comerica Bank owned approximately 0.24% of Granite Construction worth $9,315,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in Granite Construction by 35.1% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,131,419 shares of the construction company's stock worth $99,237,000 after purchasing an additional 294,200 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $92,154,000. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the 4th quarter valued at about $61,046,000. Boston Partners increased its position in Granite Construction by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 584,398 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $51,813,000 after acquiring an additional 15,597 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Granite Construction by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 580,584 shares of the construction company's stock worth $50,923,000 after acquiring an additional 105,420 shares during the period.

Insider Buying and Selling at Granite Construction

In related news, SVP Brian R. Dowd sold 2,025 shares of Granite Construction stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.55, for a total value of $165,138.75. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 13,880 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,131,914. The trade was a 12.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Kyle T. Larkin sold 2,790 shares of Granite Construction stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.02, for a total transaction of $223,255.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 136,384 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,913,447.68. This trade represents a 2.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,932 shares of company stock worth $896,979 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Granite Construction from $69.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a report on Monday.

Granite Construction Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of Granite Construction stock traded down $0.59 on Friday, reaching $82.20. The stock had a trading volume of 373,009 shares, compared to its average volume of 649,083. Granite Construction Incorporated has a 1 year low of $58.23 and a 1 year high of $105.20. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $76.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $85.80. The company has a quick ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.28 and a beta of 1.33.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The construction company reported $0.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.43) by $0.44. Granite Construction had a net margin of 3.15% and a return on equity of 20.67%. The firm had revenue of $699.55 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $706.15 million. Granite Construction's quarterly revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 5.49 EPS for the current year.

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. Granite Construction's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.67%.

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.