Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. (NASDAQ:GLDD) Short Interest Down 15.4% in October

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. (NASDAQ:GLDD) saw a large drop in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 670,400 shares, a drop of 15.4% from the October 15th total of 792,100 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 486,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.4 days. Currently, 1.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of GLDD stock traded up $0.12 on Monday, hitting $12.06. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 322,001 shares, compared to its average volume of 428,368. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $811.28 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.72, a P/E/G ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 1.13. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock has a fifty-two week low of $6.40 and a fifty-two week high of $12.83. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $11.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.80.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (NASDAQ:GLDD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The construction company reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.05). Great Lakes Dredge & Dock had a return on equity of 13.35% and a net margin of 7.97%. The company had revenue of $191.17 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $180.80 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.09) EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Great Lakes Dredge & Dock will post 0.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kathleen M. Shanahan sold 23,238 shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.63, for a total value of $293,495.94. Following the transaction, the director now owns 67,675 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $854,735.25. This trade represents a 25.56 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Lasse Petterson sold 28,709 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 902,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,338,102.08. This represents a 3.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 98,457 shares of company stock worth $981,078. Corporate insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Great Lakes Dredge & Dock

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GLDD. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 96.1% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 106,558 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $932,000 after buying an additional 52,207 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 1.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,413,673 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $29,870,000 after purchasing an additional 48,760 shares during the period. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock during the 1st quarter worth about $335,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd boosted its stake in 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 valued at $160,000 after purchasing an additional 3,506 shares during the period. Finally, PEAK6 Investments LLC grew its holdings in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 20.8% in the 1st quarter. PEAK6 Investments LLC now owns 66,109 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $578,000 after buying an additional 11,365 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on GLDD shares. Noble Financial raised their price target on shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. StockNews.com cut shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th.

About Great Lakes Dredge & Dock

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.