Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Purchases New Position in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 5,700 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $290,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GVA. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Granite Construction by 4.4% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 989,161 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $37,608,000 after acquiring an additional 41,575 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Granite Construction by 15.5% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 397,219 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $15,102,000 after purchasing an additional 53,438 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Granite Construction by 8.7% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 391,957 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $14,902,000 after purchasing an additional 31,438 shares during the last quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Granite Construction by 2.0% during the third quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 378,995 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $14,409,000 after purchasing an additional 7,298 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. bought a new position in shares of Granite Construction during the third quarter worth about $8,554,000.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Louis E. Caldera sold 1,263 shares of Granite Construction stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $63,150.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 8,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $426,400. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Granite Construction Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GVA opened at $53.61 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.49, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $53.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $48.07. Granite Construction Incorporated has a 52-week low of $33.74 and a 52-week high of $57.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 70.54 and a beta of 1.46.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The construction company reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $933.70 million for the quarter. Granite Construction had a net margin of 1.24% and a return on equity of 14.15%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.97%. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.42%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.