Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of contractor Granite Construction (NYSE: GVA) fell as much as 13% today, before making back nearly all of the losses today as it reported second-quarter earnings.

So what: At just $0.05 a share, Granite's earnings came in way off analyst estimates, who were expecting $0.33. Its $539.6 million in revenue also missed estimates by about 3%, as the company pointed to "one of the toughest construction markets our company, and our industry, has faced in recent times." The company also dialed down parts of its outlook, cutting revenue and gross profit targets in its Construction Materials segment and gross profit guidance in the Construction division, though it did elevate expected gross profit in the Large Project segment.

Now what: Wall Street is generally way off the mark with this company, so this earnings miss shouldn't be a huge surprise. In the last five quarters, the consensus has been off by 23% or more, and on both sides of the ledger. This is a highly cyclical industry, meaning numerical predictions are often meaningless. The second quarter was full of negative macroeconomic news, but things seem to be improving with some promising retail reports and better-than-expected employment numbers, which may explain the bounce-back in the stock today.

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