Investors Buy High Volume of Las Vegas Sands Call Options (NYSE:LVS)

Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders acquired 22,621 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 32% compared to the typical volume of 17,077 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Las Vegas Sands

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Las Vegas Sands by 0.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,107,775 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $1,918,472,000 after purchasing an additional 209,589 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Las Vegas Sands by 1.7% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 32,170,552 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $1,663,219,000 after purchasing an additional 531,799 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Las Vegas Sands by 15.7% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 11,351,573 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $502,307,000 after purchasing an additional 1,536,754 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 11,263,604 shares of the casino operator’s stock valued at $554,282,000 after acquiring an additional 669,052 shares during the period. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its position in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 0.8% in the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 8,500,248 shares of the casino operator’s stock valued at $376,136,000 after acquiring an additional 68,568 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 39.16% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on LVS. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $57.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Argus downgraded shares of Las Vegas Sands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Las Vegas Sands from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $70.00 to $49.00 in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $58.00 to $53.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.25.

Las Vegas Sands Stock Up 4.1 %

NYSE:LVS traded up $1.69 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $42.48. The stock had a trading volume of 1,757,199 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,521,424. The business’s 50 day moving average is $40.04 and its 200 day moving average is $44.71. Las Vegas Sands has a fifty-two week low of $36.62 and a fifty-two week high of $55.65. The stock has a market cap of $31.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.71, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.29, a current ratio of 1.58 and a quick ratio of 1.57.

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The casino operator reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.82 billion. Las Vegas Sands had a return on equity of 44.41% and a net margin of 14.08%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.46 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Las Vegas Sands will post 2.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Las Vegas Sands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 6th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 6th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.88%. Las Vegas Sands’s payout ratio is currently 38.65%.

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.