New awards of $118 million are positive. After the market closed, several additional large awards were announced. The awards on six projects include four Maintenance for $78.6 million and two Coastal Protection for $39.2 million. While ~$48 million of the awards were discussed on the 2Q2020 earnings call, there were several new awards, including the Mississippi River work, that support our constructive view. In addition, there are other low bids pending award outstanding, including a low bid of $15.5 million on work at Freeport (TX) Harbor that was opened on August 10th.News expected shortly on several large opportunities and Jacksonville C in 3Q/4Q2020. 2H2020 rebound backlog appears likely. While backlog dropped for the third consecutive quarter in 2Q2020, a rebound is expected in 2H2020 due to the announced awards and several upcoming opportunities. Two larger opportunities in Louisiana remain on the immediate horizon, and Jacksonville C is still on track for 3Q/4Q2020 award (response date was August 17th).Improved credit profile makes debt refinancing likely and new build funding manageable. Also, the stock buyback of up to $75 million sends a strong positive signal. The decline in net debt to $91.5 million in 2Q2020 further strengthened the credit profile and should fund the new build(s), plus help refinance existing debt once the credit market normalizes. As shown below, free operating cash flow more than covers capex, including the new build, and stock buybacks so net debt should drop at year-end 2020.Maintain Outperform rating and price target of $14.35/share due to continued confidence in 2020 outlook and the added positive of the new stock buyback program. Despite the positive response to 2Q2020 operating results and the stock buyback program, GLDD has faded a bit and remains down 17% this year. We expect the stock to rebound since concerns about the below-average project win rate and backlog direction should not linger with the announced and soon-to-be-announced awards. We also believe that the current EV multiple of 4.5x 2020E EBITDA, FID on the new build and the stock buyback are positives.Other potential catalysts include infrastructure stimulus and a successful debt refinancing.Read More >>