Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRI) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRI) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $93.20.

MCRI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Monarch Casino & Resort in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Monarch Casino & Resort from $81.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen raised Monarch Casino & Resort from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, July 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Monarch Casino & Resort from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $83.00 to $89.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Monarch Casino & Resort from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 15th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Monarch Casino & Resort

In other Monarch Casino & Resort news, CEO John Farahi sold 2,000 shares of Monarch Casino & Resort stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.78, for a total transaction of $211,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 560,110 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,248,435.80. The trade was a 0.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Craig F. Sullivan sold 12,200 shares of Monarch Casino & Resort stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.55, for a total value of $1,287,710.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 25.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Monarch Casino & Resort

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MCRI. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Monarch Casino & Resort by 147.1% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 222,770 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,320,000 after purchasing an additional 132,599 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Monarch Casino & Resort during the first quarter worth about $9,872,000. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Monarch Casino & Resort by 40.1% during the first quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 343,565 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,712,000 after purchasing an additional 98,371 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new stake in Monarch Casino & Resort during the first quarter worth about $5,904,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Monarch Casino & Resort by 20.0% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 391,868 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,877,000 after purchasing an additional 65,272 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.37% of the company’s stock.

Monarch Casino & Resort Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MCRI opened at $96.75 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.77 billion, a PE ratio of 18.19 and a beta of 1.49. Monarch Casino & Resort has a fifty-two week low of $69.99 and a fifty-two week high of $113.88. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $102.09 and a 200-day moving average of $90.61.

Monarch Casino & Resort (NASDAQ:MCRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The company reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $136.91 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $129.76 million. Monarch Casino & Resort had a return on equity of 18.99% and a net margin of 18.70%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Monarch Casino & Resort will post 5.13 EPS for the current year.

Monarch Casino & Resort Company Profile

Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc engages in the ownership and operation of the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, a hotel and casino facility in Reno, Nevada, and the Monarch Black Hawk Casino in Black Hawk, Colorado. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Reno, NV.