Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (NASDAQ:GLDD) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. (NASDAQ:GLDD)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Monday after Noble Financial raised their price target on the stock from $11.00 to $14.00. The stock had previously closed at $10.45, but opened at $10.70. Noble Financial currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock shares last traded at $10.69, with a volume of 55,711 shares changing hands.

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded Great Lakes Dredge & Dock from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Lasse Petterson sold 28,709 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.24, for a total transaction of $265,271.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 902,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,338,102.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 128,990 shares of company stock worth $1,174,747 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GLDD. ARS Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 11.0% during the 2nd quarter. ARS Investment Partners LLC now owns 12,150 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $107,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP lifted its holdings in shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 68.5% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 3,097 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 1,259 shares during the period. Creative Planning grew its holdings in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 8.2% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 38,688 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $340,000 after acquiring an additional 2,919 shares during the period. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd grew its stake in shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 23.7% during the 1st quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 18,278 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $160,000 after purchasing an additional 3,506 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.11% of the company’s stock.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Price Performance

The stock’s fifty day moving average is $9.37 and its 200-day moving average is $8.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $723.03 million, a PE ratio of 18.93, a P/E/G ratio of 0.34 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.13.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (NASDAQ:GLDD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The construction company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.03 by $0.08. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock had a net margin of 6.61% and a return on equity of 10.05%. The company had revenue of $170.09 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $165.00 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.03 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. will post 0.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company Profile

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation provides dredging services in the United States. The company engages in capital dredging that consists of port expansion projects; coastal restoration and land reclamations; trench digging for pipelines, tunnels, and cables; and other dredging related to the construction of breakwaters, jetties, canals, and other marine structures.