Trexquant Investment LP Buys Shares of 45,537 Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

Trexquant Investment LP bought a new position in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 45,537 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,316,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Granite Construction by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 8,192 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $311,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp lifted its holdings in Granite Construction by 35.1% in the 4th quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 2,500 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $127,000 after purchasing an additional 650 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in Granite Construction in the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Rock Point Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Granite Construction by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 138,430 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $5,263,000 after purchasing an additional 1,172 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Granite Construction by 1.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 96,400 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $3,665,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter.

Insider Buying and Selling at Granite Construction

In other Granite Construction news, SVP Bradley Jay Williams sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.21, for a total value of $45,907.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,423 shares in the company, valued at $454,361.83. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Granite Construction news, SVP Bradley Jay Williams sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.21, for a total value of $45,907.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,423 shares in the company, valued at $454,361.83. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Louis E. Caldera sold 1,263 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $63,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 8,528 shares in the company, valued at $426,400. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on GVA shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Granite Construction from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. DA Davidson upped their price target on Granite Construction from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 27th.

Granite Construction Stock Performance

GVA opened at $62.43 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.76 billion, a PE ratio of 105.81 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. Granite Construction Incorporated has a 1 year low of $33.74 and a 1 year high of $64.33. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $57.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $51.55.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The construction company reported ($0.21) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.49) by $0.28. The business had revenue of $672.28 million for the quarter. Granite Construction had a return on equity of 14.91% and a net margin of 0.98%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 4.76 EPS for the current year.

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio is presently 88.14%.

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.