Las Vegas Sands Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:LVS)

Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Traders purchased 22,700 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 53% compared to the typical daily volume of 14,872 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Las Vegas Sands during the first quarter valued at about $183,836,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Las Vegas Sands during the 2nd quarter valued at about $134,179,000. ARGA Investment Management LP lifted its position in 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 worth $436,883,000 after buying an additional 2,698,398 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Las Vegas Sands by 5.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,249,208 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $1,593,457,000 after buying an additional 2,267,307 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Las Vegas Sands by 4,226.7% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,012,800 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $44,067,000 after buying an additional 989,392 shares in the last quarter. 39.16% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LVS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Macquarie lifted their price objective on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Bank of America lifted their price target on Las Vegas Sands from $52.50 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Las Vegas Sands from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 11th. Susquehanna cut their target price on Las Vegas Sands from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Las Vegas Sands from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Las Vegas Sands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.80.

Las Vegas Sands Stock Performance

Shares of LVS opened at $55.05 on Friday. Las Vegas Sands has a 12-month low of $30.18 and a 12-month high of $58.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.53. The company has a market cap of $37.79 billion, a PE ratio of 27.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $53.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $45.39.

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The casino operator reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.26. Las Vegas Sands had a net margin of 12.16% and a return on equity of 55.37%. The company had revenue of $3.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.55 earnings per share. Las Vegas Sands’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Las Vegas Sands will post 2.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Las Vegas Sands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 5th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 5th. Las Vegas Sands’s payout ratio is currently 50.51%.

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.