Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (NASDAQ:GLDD) Short Interest Down 46.5% in March

Key Points

• Short interest in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock plunged 46.5% in March to 1,572,087 shares (~2.4% of shares), leaving a short-interest ratio of just 0.8 days based on average volume.
• Institutional ownership is very high at 89.11%, with large funds—Dimensional, Vanguard, American Century, Millennium and JPMorgan—having recently increased their multi‑million‑share positions.
• Analyst views are mixed: MarketBeat's consensus is a "Hold" with an average price target of $17.00; the stock trades at $17.00 and the company recently beat expectations (EPS $0.30 vs $0.20, revenue $256.45M vs $216.3M).

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (NASDAQ:GLDD - Get Free Report) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 1,572,087 shares, a decrease of 46.5% from the March 15th total of 2,936,995 shares. Approximately 2.4% of the company's shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,922,817 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.8 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Great Lakes Dredge & Dock

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 0.8% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,323,251 shares of the construction company's stock worth $51,835,000 after purchasing an additional 35,044 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,987,334 shares of the construction company's stock worth $52,314,000 after purchasing an additional 108,033 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 10.6% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,412,467 shares of the construction company's stock worth $28,925,000 after purchasing an additional 231,558 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 39.4% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,597,481 shares of the construction company's stock worth $20,959,000 after purchasing an additional 451,346 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 12.6% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 888,739 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $10,656,000 after purchasing an additional 99,463 shares during the last quarter. 89.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on GLDD. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock from a "neutral" rating to an "underweight" rating and set a $17.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, March 26th. Texas Capital downgraded shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, Noble Financial downgraded shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $17.00.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GLDD remained flat at $17.00 during midday trading on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The firm's 50-day moving average is $16.74 and its two-hundred day moving average is $14.19. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock has a one year low of $7.51 and a one year high of $17.02. The stock has a market cap of $1.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.38.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (NASDAQ:GLDD - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 23rd. The construction company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.10. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock had a net margin of 8.27% and a return on equity of 16.46%. The firm had revenue of $256.45 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $216.30 million. On average, research analysts predict that Great Lakes Dredge & Dock will post 0.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Great Lakes Dredge & Dock

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation NASDAQ: GLDD is a leading provider of dredging and maritime construction services in the United States. The company specializes in the excavation and removal of sediment from waterways, harbors, ports and coastal areas to maintain navigability and support commercial shipping. Its operations encompass both maintenance dredging—removing accumulated material to restore channel depth—and new work projects such as land reclamation and harbor deepening.

In addition to traditional dredging, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock offers a range of complementary marine construction services.

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