Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) Raised to Strong-Buy at Wall Street Zen

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Seaport Global Securities boosted their price objective on Las Vegas Sands from $66.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 1st. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $67.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 8th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $57.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Las Vegas Sands from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.45.

Las Vegas Sands Trading Down 1.5%

NYSE:LVS opened at $65.23 on Friday. Las Vegas Sands has a one year low of $30.18 and a one year high of $70.45. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $60.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $53.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.42, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The casino operator reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $3.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Las Vegas Sands had a return on equity of 73.14% and a net margin of 12.69%.Las Vegas Sands’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.44 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Las Vegas Sands will post 2.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Las Vegas Sands news, COO Patrick Dumont sold 210,305 shares of Las Vegas Sands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.96, for a total value of $14,712,937.80. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 446,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,244,695.68. The trade was a 32.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP D. Zachary Hudson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.99, for a total value of $6,499,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 13,735 shares in the company, valued at $892,637.65. This trade represents a 87.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 3,104,062 shares of company stock worth $194,591,786 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Las Vegas Sands

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in Las Vegas Sands by 410.2% during the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 5,167,553 shares of the casino operator’s stock valued at $277,963,000 after purchasing an additional 4,154,753 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Las Vegas Sands during the 2nd quarter valued at about $134,179,000. ARGA Investment Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 36.8% in the 2nd quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 10,040,975 shares of the casino operator’s stock valued at $436,883,000 after acquiring an additional 2,698,398 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Las Vegas Sands by 4.4% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,072,014 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $1,874,063,000 after acquiring an additional 1,822,806 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its position in Las Vegas Sands by 43.8% in the third quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,454,013 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $293,371,000 after acquiring an additional 1,660,823 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 39.16% of the company’s stock.

About Las Vegas Sands

Las Vegas Sands Corp., together with its subsidiaries, develops, owns, and operates integrated resorts in Macao and Singapore. It owns and operates The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, the Londoner Macao, The Parisian Macao, The Plaza Macao and Four Seasons Hotel Macao, Cotai Strip, and the Sands Macao in Macao, the People’s Republic of China; and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.