Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation provides dredging services in the United States. The company offers 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 comprising …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Scale Supporting ProfitabilityProfitability at scale is strong (score 0.78), demonstrating competitive advantages.
Cost Leadership PositionOperating margin at 86.7th percentile with strong OpEx control demonstrates cost leadership.
Key risks
Liquidity ConcernsLiquidity is concerning (score 0.18), raising questions about short-term obligations.
Volatile Margins Suggest CyclicalityMargin volatility is high (stability score 0.24), suggesting cyclical exposure or competitive pressure.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corpo ranks #13 of 49
scored companies in Engineering & Construction by moat score — the top 27%.
The widest moat in the group is Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. (STRL)
at 79/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near GLDD in Engineering & Construction
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 72
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 72
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 54
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 49
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 82
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
What is Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corpo's moat score?
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corpo (GLDD) scores 63 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #13 of 49 scored companies in Engineering & Construction, the top 27%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 48 companies in Engineering & Construction. Its strongest defense is Scale & Market Position (82/100) and its weakest is Resilience (49/100).
How does Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corpo compare with other Engineering & Construction companies?
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corpo ranks #13 of 49 scored companies in Engineering & Construction by moat score. The widest moat in Engineering & Construction is Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. (STRL) at 79/100. The companies ranked closest are Arcosa, Inc. (ACA) at 64 just above it and Cadeler A/S (CDLR) at 63 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 48 companies in Engineering & Construction. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corpo scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corpo?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and GLDD scores: Pricing Power (56), Cost Advantage (72), Customer Stickiness (72), Capital Efficiency (54), Resilience (49), Scale & Market Position (82). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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