Investors interested in Construction stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (GLDD) been one of those stocks this year? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Construction peers, we might be able to answer that question.
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is a member of our Construction group, which includes 88 different companies and currently sits at #13 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different groups, measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the sector to gauge the strength of each group.
The Zacks Rank is a proven model that highlights a variety of stocks with the right characteristics to outperform the market over the next one to three months. The system emphasizes earnings estimate revisions and favors companies with improving earnings outlooks. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for GLDD's full-year earnings has moved 6.1% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.
Based on the latest available data, GLDD has gained about 8.3% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Construction group have gained about 6.9% on average. This means that Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.
Granite Construction (GVA) is another Construction stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 24.7%.
The consensus estimate for Granite Construction's current year EPS has increased 2.7% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
To break things down more, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock belongs to the Building Products - Heavy Construction industry, a group that includes 9 individual companies and currently sits at #4 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 35.2% so far this year, so GLDD is slightly underperforming its industry in this area. Granite Construction is also part of the same industry.
Going forward, investors interested in Construction stocks should continue to pay close attention to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock and Granite Construction as they could maintain their solid performance.
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Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (GLDD): Free Stock Analysis Report Granite Construction Incorporated (GVA): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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