Northern Trust Corp Purchases 87,783 Shares of Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA - Free Report) by 17.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 579,384 shares of the construction company's stock after buying an additional 87,783 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned about 1.33% of Granite Construction worth $50,818,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Granite Construction during the fourth quarter worth about $545,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Granite Construction during the 4th quarter worth approximately $92,154,000. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its position in Granite Construction by 35.2% during the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 26,319 shares of the construction company's stock worth $2,308,000 after purchasing an additional 6,852 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Granite Construction in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,855,000. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Granite Construction in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $61,046,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Activity

In related news, COO James A. Radich sold 2,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.14, for a total transaction of $217,850.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 28,256 shares in the company, valued at $2,462,227.84. This represents a 8.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Brian R. Dowd sold 2,025 shares of Granite Construction stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,131,914. The trade was a 12.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 10,932 shares of company stock valued at $896,979. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company's stock.

Granite Construction Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of GVA stock traded down $0.23 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $82.56. 865,053 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 652,262. The company has a market cap of $3.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.43 and a beta of 1.33. 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's fifty day simple moving average is $76.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $85.82. Granite Construction Incorporated has a 1-year low of $58.23 and a 1-year high of $105.20.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 the consensus estimate of $706.15 million. The business's revenue was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 5.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were given a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. 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.