New low bids could trigger awards of $102 million. Over the past month, low apparent bids of $102 million have been posted to government web sites. The largest chunk of work was posted late last week on the DoD web site. GLDD was awarded a $52.90 million firm-fixed-price contract for maintenance and new dredging in Charleston, South Carolina, with an estimated completion date of August 2022.In addition, several other low bids have been posted. They are South Atlantic Regional work in four harbors, including Brunswick, Morehead City, Savannah, and Wilmington $14.66 million, Shore Protection Project (SPP) in Brevard County for $10.6 million with options, Mobile Harbor channel deepening and widening - Phase 1 for $8.30 million, and Fernandian Harbor work in Nassau County, Florida for $4.32 million. On August 10th, a low bid of $15.5 million on work at Freeport (TX) Harbor was opened.Combined with awards announced in mid-August that totaled ~$118 million, the new low bids pending award should help stabilize backlog in 3Q2020. In mid-August, new awards for $118 million were announced. The work includes a total of six projects, including four maintenance awards for $78.6 million and two coastal protection awards for $39.2 million. In total, the new awards and low bids approach $220 million and support our constructive view.News expected shortly on large opportunities, including Jacksonville C in 3Q/4Q2020. While backlog has dropped for the three consecutive quarters to $433 million, a solid rebound is expected in 2H2020 due to the announced awards, low bids pending award and other large opportunities on the horizon.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 over the past month and remains down 21% 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 4.3x 2020E EBITDA and the stock buyback are positives.Read More >>