Magnetar Financial LLC Takes Position in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 5,815 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $510,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of GVA. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its stake in Granite Construction by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 23,747 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,083,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC boosted its stake in Granite Construction by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 10,376 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $910,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Granite Construction by 8.5% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,178 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $191,000 after acquiring an additional 171 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its stake in Granite Construction by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 6,055 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $531,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Xponance Inc. boosted its stake in Granite Construction by 9.9% during the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 3,168 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $278,000 after acquiring an additional 285 shares in the last quarter.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Brian R. Dowd sold 2,025 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.55, for a total transaction of $165,138.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,131,914. The trade was a 12.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO James A. Radich sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.14, for a total transaction of $217,850.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 28,256 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,462,227.84. This trade represents a 8.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Granite Construction Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE:GVA opened at $76.13 on Friday. Granite Construction Incorporated has a one year low of $52.99 and a one year high of $105.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.56. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $83.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $86.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.82 and a beta of 1.34.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The construction company reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.42 by ($0.19). Granite Construction had a return on equity of 20.67% and a net margin of 3.15%. The business had revenue of $977.30 million for the quarter. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.82 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 5.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Granite Construction Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.05%.

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.