Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) PT Raised to $70.00 at The Goldman Sachs Group

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) had its price target hoisted by analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $61.00 to $70.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “sell” rating on the construction company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price target points to a potential downside of 13.11% from the stock’s current price.

Granite Construction Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE GVA opened at $80.56 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $65.41. The firm has a market cap of $3.52 billion, a PE ratio of 46.30 and a beta of 1.38. Granite Construction has a 1 year low of $33.74 and a 1 year high of $82.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.56.

Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The construction company reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.41. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. Granite Construction had a net margin of 2.35% and a return on equity of 17.82%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.03 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Granite Construction will post 5.24 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Granite Construction

In other Granite Construction news, SVP Michael G. Tatusko sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.22, for a total transaction of $346,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 21,943 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,518,894.46. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Granite Construction

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GVA. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in Granite Construction by 99.3% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,569,319 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $159,221,000 after purchasing an additional 1,280,288 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Granite Construction by 637.4% during the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 936,858 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $53,523,000 after buying an additional 809,803 shares during the period. Hood River Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,143,000. Highbridge Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,513,000. Finally, Aristeia Capital L.L.C. acquired a new stake in shares of Granite Construction during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,513,000.

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.