Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (NASDAQ:GLDD) Cut to “Underweight” at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (NASDAQ:GLDD) from a neutral rating to an underweight rating in a research report released on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has $17.00 price target on the construction company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on GLDD. Wall Street Zen cut Great Lakes Dredge & Dock from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 24th. Weiss Ratings raised 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. Zacks Research raised shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Noble Financial cut 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 given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $17.00.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GLDD opened at $16.97 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock has a 12 month low of $7.51 and a 12 month high of $16.99. The company has a market cap of $1.13 billion, a PE ratio of 15.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.83.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (NASDAQ:GLDD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 23rd. The construction company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $256.45 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $216.30 million. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock had a return on equity of 16.46% and a net margin of 8.27%. Research analysts forecast that Great Lakes Dredge & Dock will post 0.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Great Lakes Dredge & Dock

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 228.7% in the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,146,135 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $13,742,000 after buying an additional 797,411 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 680.1% during 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 lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 394,543 shares in the last quarter. Simcoe Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,955,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock by 120.9% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 634,720 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $8,328,000 after acquiring an additional 347,334 shares during the period. 89.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.