Heartland Advisors Inc. Decreases Position in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA)

Heartland Advisors Inc. decreased its position in Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE:GVA) by 15.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 91,231 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 16,331 shares during the period. Heartland Advisors Inc. owned about 0.21% of Granite Construction worth $8,002,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of GVA. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its position in shares of Granite Construction by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 5,626 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $493,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Granite Construction in the fourth quarter worth $31,855,000. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. lifted its position in Granite Construction by 86.7% during the 4th quarter. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. now owns 68,004 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $5,963,000 after acquiring an additional 31,573 shares during the period. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Granite Construction in the 4th quarter worth approximately $218,000. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in shares of Granite Construction in the 4th quarter worth about $764,000.

Insider Transactions at Granite Construction

In other Granite Construction news, COO James A. Radich sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.14, for a total transaction of $217,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 28,256 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,462,227.84. This trade represents a 8.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Brian R. Dowd sold 2,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,131,914. The trade was a 12.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Granite Construction Price Performance

GVA opened at $75.15 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a current ratio of 1.66. Granite Construction Incorporated has a 52-week low of $52.99 and a 52-week high of $105.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.42 and a beta of 1.34. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $82.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $86.19.

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

Granite Construction Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Granite Construction’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.05%.

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.