First Trust Advisors LP Purchases 294,200 Shares of Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) by 35.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,131,419 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 294,200 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 2.59% of Granite Construction worth $99,237,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of GVA. Pacer Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Granite Construction in the fourth quarter valued at about $92,154,000. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Granite Construction in the 4th quarter worth approximately $61,046,000. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in Granite Construction by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 584,398 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $51,813,000 after purchasing an additional 15,597 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Granite Construction by 22.2% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 580,584 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $50,923,000 after purchasing an additional 105,420 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Granite Construction during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,855,000.

Insider Transactions at Granite Construction

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

Granite Construction Price Performance

GVA stock opened at $77.20 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a current ratio of 1.66. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $78.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $86.00. Granite Construction Incorporated has a one year low of $53.16 and a one year high of $105.20. The company has a market capitalization of $3.35 billion, a PE ratio of 31.25 and a beta of 1.26.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last released 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 net margin of 3.15% and a return on equity of 20.67%. The company had revenue of $977.30 million for the quarter. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.82 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Granite Construction Incorporated will post 5.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. Granite Construction’s payout ratio is 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.