Financial Survey: Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (NASDAQ:GLDD) & Bilfinger (OTCMKTS:BFLBY)

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (NASDAQ:GLDD) and Bilfinger (OTCMKTS:BFLBY) are both construction companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends and valuation.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

89.1% of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.2% of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Great Lakes Dredge & Dock and Bilfinger’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock	6.61%	10.05%	3.65%
Bilfinger	N/A	N/A	N/A

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Great Lakes Dredge & Dock and Bilfinger”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock	$667.66 million	1.05	$13.91 million	$0.57	18.37
Bilfinger	N/A	N/A	N/A	($0.31)	-34.80

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock has higher revenue and earnings than Bilfinger. Bilfinger is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Great Lakes Dredge & Dock, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Bilfinger pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock pays out 14.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Bilfinger pays out -130.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Bilfinger is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Great Lakes Dredge & Dock and Bilfinger, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock	0	0	1	0	3.00
Bilfinger	0	0	0	0	N/A

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock presently has a consensus price target of $14.00, indicating a potential upside of 33.72%. Given Great Lakes Dredge & Dock’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is more favorable than Bilfinger.

Summary

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock beats Bilfinger on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. It is also involved in coastal protection projects that comprises of moving sand from the ocean floor to shoreline locations where erosion threatens shoreline assets; maintenance dredging, which consists of the re-dredging of previously deepened waterways and harbors to remove silt, sand, and other accumulated sediments; lake and river dredging, inland levee and construction dredging, environmental restoration and habitat improvement, and other marine construction projects; and land reclamations, channel deepening, and port infrastructure development. The company serves federal, state, and local governments; foreign governments; and domestic and foreign private concerns, such as utilities, oil and gas, and other energy companies. It operates hydraulic dredges, hopper dredges, mechanical dredges, unloaders, drill boats, and material and other barges equipment. The company was formerly known as Lydon & Drews Partnership and changed its name to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation in 1905. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation was founded in 1890 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About Bilfinger

Bilfinger SE provides industrial services to customers in the process industry primarily in Europe, North America, and the Middle East. The company offers engineering, project, maintenance, turnaround, rotating equipment, and inspection services. It also provides new construction and decommissioning of nuclear power plants, treatment of radioactive waste, and nuclear fusion services. In addition, the company offers energy efficiency, carbon capture, utilization, and storage; and hydrogen, hydropower, and wind power services. Further, it provides design and engineering, plant engineering and assembly, operation and optimization, bilfinger connected asset performance, and mobile and web application services. It serves customers in energy, chemicals and petrochemicals, pharma and biopharma, and oil and gas industries. The company was founded in 1880 and is headquartered in Mannheim, Germany.