Short Interest in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (NASDAQ:GLDD) Increases By 20.3%

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (NASDAQ:GLDD) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 2,936,995 shares, a growth of 20.3% from the February 26th total of 2,441,466 shares. Currently, 4.5% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,949,113 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.5 days.

Institutional Trading of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 228.7% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,146,135 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $13,742,000 after buying an additional 797,411 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 680.1% in the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 841,140 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $10,253,000 after buying an additional 733,312 shares in the last quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 404.0% during the 2nd quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 492,191 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $6,000,000 after acquiring an additional 394,543 shares during the period. Simcoe Capital LLC bought a new stake in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock during the 4th quarter valued at $4,955,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 120.9% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 634,720 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $8,328,000 after acquiring an additional 347,334 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Texas Capital lowered shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $17.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, March 26th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. CJS Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Finally, Noble Financial cut shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.00.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Stock Up 0.2%

GLDD stock opened at $17.00 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.01. The company has a market capitalization of $1.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.89, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.36. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock has a fifty-two week low of $7.51 and a fifty-two week high of $17.02. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $16.49 and a 200-day moving average of $13.94.

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

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company Profile

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.