Gateway Investment Advisers LLC Purchases New Stake in Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS)

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 69,079 shares of the casino operator’s stock, valued at approximately $2,669,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LVS. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Las Vegas Sands by 26.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 58,824,289 shares of the casino operator’s stock valued at $3,021,205,000 after buying an additional 12,304,533 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in Las Vegas Sands by 55.7% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 14,218,581 shares of the casino operator’s stock valued at $730,295,000 after buying an additional 5,088,095 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Las Vegas Sands during the fourth quarter valued at $216,571,000. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its position in Las Vegas Sands by 29.8% during the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 9,382,267 shares of the casino operator’s stock valued at $481,873,000 after buying an additional 2,152,829 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Las Vegas Sands by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 11,662,548 shares of the casino operator’s stock valued at $598,988,000 after buying an additional 1,389,963 shares during the period. 39.16% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LVS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Macquarie dropped their price target on Las Vegas Sands from $58.00 to $52.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Mizuho set a $47.00 target price on Las Vegas Sands in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $57.00 target price on Las Vegas Sands and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Barclays lowered their target price on Las Vegas Sands from $58.00 to $53.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded Las Vegas Sands to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Las Vegas Sands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $56.75.

Las Vegas Sands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE LVS opened at $40.20 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.35, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of $28.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.03. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.53. Las Vegas Sands Corp. has a 52 week low of $30.18 and a 52 week high of $56.61.

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The casino operator reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $2.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.95 billion. Las Vegas Sands had a net margin of 12.80% and a return on equity of 45.82%. The business’s revenue was down 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.78 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Las Vegas Sands Corp. will post 2.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Las Vegas Sands announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, April 23rd that allows the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the casino operator to reacquire up to 8.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Las Vegas Sands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 6th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 6th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.49%. Las Vegas Sands’s payout ratio is 55.56%.

Las Vegas Sands Company Profile

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.