Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) Announces $0.13 Quarterly Dividend

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.13 per share by the construction company on Wednesday, April 15th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 31st.

Granite Construction has a payout ratio of 8.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Granite Construction to earn $6.97 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.52 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 7.5%.

Granite Construction Trading Up 2.0%

GVA stock opened at $131.77 on Friday. Granite Construction has a twelve month low of $69.08 and a twelve month high of $136.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.93 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $119.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $110.42.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The construction company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.06. Granite Construction had a net margin of 4.31% and a return on equity of 24.04%. The company had revenue of $1.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.23 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Granite Construction will post 5.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on GVA. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Granite Construction in a research report on Monday, December 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Granite Construction from $109.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Granite Construction from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Granite Construction from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 17th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Granite Construction from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Granite Construction presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $127.00.

Granite Construction Company Profile

Granite Construction Inc is a publicly traded heavy civil contractor and construction materials producer based in Watsonville, California. The company specializes in delivering large-scale infrastructure projects for government and private clients, focusing on the development, rehabilitation and maintenance of transportation, water resource and industrial facilities. Its turnkey solutions span the full project lifecycle, from preconstruction and design-build to construction management and facilities maintenance.

In its construction segment, Granite undertakes highway and bridge building, airport runway and taxiway construction, marine terminal and port improvements, dam and reservoir projects, transit systems and underground utilities.