Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) was upgraded by Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment from $6.50 to $7.20 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment from $5.70 to $6.60 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $6.25 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $7.50 to $6.70 in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment from a “buy” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $4.60 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $6.73.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of MLCO opened at $6.40 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.79. Melco Resorts & Entertainment has a twelve month low of $4.55 and a twelve month high of $8.90. The company has a 50 day moving average of $5.82 and a two-hundred day moving average of $5.75.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.13. The company had revenue of $1.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.21 billion. Melco Resorts & Entertainment had a net margin of 1.28% and a negative return on equity of 12.58%. Melco Resorts & Entertainment’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.04 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Melco Resorts & Entertainment will post 0.16 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Melco Resorts & Entertainment

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MLCO. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment during the first quarter worth $31,946,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new position in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment during the fourth quarter worth $28,989,000. Brightlight Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment during the first quarter worth $15,141,000. Eminence Capital LP raised its holdings in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 22.1% during the fourth quarter. Eminence Capital LP now owns 7,735,919 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,791,000 after purchasing an additional 1,402,619 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 206.5% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,009,189 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,633,000 after purchasing an additional 1,353,617 shares during the last quarter. 39.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Melco Resorts & Entertainment

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited, through its subsidiaries, develops, owns, and operates casino gaming and entertainment casino resort facilities in Asia. It owns and operates City of Dreams, an integrated casino resort that has 500 gaming tables and 800 gaming machines; approximately 1,400 hotel rooms and suites; a wet stage performance theater with approximately 2,000 seats; approximately 30 restaurants and bars, and 150 retail outlets; and recreation and leisure facilities, including health and fitness clubs, swimming pools, spa and salons, and banquet and meeting facilities.