GVA vs TPC: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. GVA and TPC share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined GVA and TPC exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE: GVA) is one of the largest civil-infrastructure contractors in the United States, building and rehabilitating roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, rail, water and power projects. It runs two segments: a Construction segment that bids and executes public and private projects, and a Materials segment that mines and sells aggregates and asphalt, giving the company a vertically integrated supply chain. Roughly 70% of construction revenue is funded by federal, state and local agencies, so the business is closely tied to public infrastructure budgets and programs like the federal transportation bill.

Full GVA guide

Tutor Perini builds the things that take years and are hard to finance: subway tunnels, bridges, highways, mass transit stations, hospitals, courthouses, casinos, water treatment plants and military facilities. It operates through three segments. Civil handles heavy public infrastructure (tunnels, bridges, mass transit) and is the highest-margin business. Building covers vertical construction for hospitality, healthcare, education and technology clients. Specialty Contractors provides the electrical, mechanical and plumbing trades that go inside both, often on the company's own projects. Revenue reached roughly $5.95 billion over the trailing twelve months, up about 25%, and work is concentrated in New York, California, Hawaii, Guam and the wider Indo-Pacific region, where military construction spending has been heavy. The company is controlled in practice by the long-tenured Tutor family influence and has a market capitalization near $5 billion.

Full TPC guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• GVA drivers: Record backlog and public funding; Margin expansion and disciplined bidding.
• TPC drivers: A record backlog converting into revenue; Legacy projects rolling off and margins normalizing.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: Granite is cyclical and heavily dependent on government infrastructure budgets, so funding delays or program changes can slow awards. For TPC, fixed-price construction concentrates risk in a small number of very large jobs, so a single disputed project can swamp the results of an otherwise good year.

Pick GVA if you believe its drivers more; TPC if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the GVA and TPC guides.

GVA. The shares have re-rated sharply, trading near a 52-week high around $150 to $155 after a strong run from the high-$80s. The trailing GAAP P/E in the mid-40s looks rich, though it is distorted by seasonally weak GAAP quarters; adjusted EBITDA growth and record backlog are what the market is paying for. The small dividend yield signals this is a growth-and-cyclical-recovery story rather than an income holding.

TPC. The trailing and forward multiples tell very different stories, which is the crux of the debate on this name. Trailing GAAP EPS of about $2.32 still carries the drag of weaker prior quarters, legal charges and share-based compensation, producing a headline P/E above 40. Against guided 2026 adjusted EPS of $5.15 to $5.45, the same price is roughly 18x to 19x, and against management's statement that 2027 should be substantially higher, lower still. Whether the stock is expensive depends almost entirely on how durable investors judge the current backlog-driven margin level to be.

Headline figures (approximate, JULY 2026): GVA shows revenue (ttm) ~$4.5B, 2026 revenue guidance ~$5.2-5.4B, market cap ~$6.6B, trailing p/e (gaap) ~44x; TPC shows revenue (ttm) ~$5.95 billion, up ~25% year over year, q2 2026 results record ~$1.64 billion revenue (up ~19%), diluted EPS ~$1.23 and adjusted EPS ~$1.74, backlog ~$19.9 billion at June 30, 2026, near a record, 2026 adjusted eps guidance ~$5.15 to $5.45, raised from ~$4.90 to $5.30.

GVA and TPC are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined GVA and TPC exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.