Guru Arnold Van Den Berg (Trades, Portfolio) slashed his stake by nearly 100% in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp. (GLDD, Financial) in the fourth quarter.
Van Den Berg is a long-term value investor who got his securities license 48 years ago. He began his career working for John Hancock Financial insurance where he saw some of the toughest bear markets in the history of the stock market. It was during these years that Van Den Berg discovered Benjamin Graham and David Dodd. Through his research on their highly successful value discipline investment philosophy, Van Den Berg decided to start his own investing firm. In 1974 he founded Century Management. The firm currently owns 70 stocks with a total value of over $561 million.
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is the largest construction services company in dredging and land reclamation in the U.S. It plays a pivotal role in the creation of shorelines and waterways, the deepening of ports and harbors and the restoration of aquatic habitats. The company first began dredging in 1890 starting out on the Chicago River, Michigan Avenue Bridge and the foundation for Navy Pier. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock has since grown its service expanding to become a global company. The company has worked on projects in Europe, Asia, Middle East, Central and South America and most recently Australia.
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock has a market cap of $196.45 million, an enterprise value of $550.41 million, a P/E ratio of 14.23 and a dividend yield of 0.28.
Below is a Peter Lynch Chart for Great Lakes Dredge & Dock.
According to GuruFocus the company has a mediocre Financial rating of 6/10 as well as a mediocre Profitability and Growth rating of 6/10. The company's cash-to-debt ratio of 0.03 is lower than 94% of the 966 companies in the global engineering and construction industry. The company's operating margin is 2.17, which is lower than 70% of the companies in the global engineering and construction industry.
Van Den Berg's philosophy is to trim stakes in holdings that have become overvalued. With his near 100% reduction in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock, it is likely that he believes the company is overvalued.
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