Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) Cut to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research lowered shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the company. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Melco Resorts & Entertainment from $8.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Wall Street Zen lowered Melco Resorts & Entertainment from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. CLSA raised Melco Resorts & Entertainment from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Melco Resorts & Entertainment from $11.00 to $11.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Melco Resorts & Entertainment currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $8.15.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Trading Down 3.9%

Shares of MLCO opened at $7.88 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $9.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $7.56. Melco Resorts & Entertainment has a 1-year low of $4.55 and a 1-year high of $10.15. The company has a market cap of $3.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.62 and a beta of 0.71.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.20 billion. Melco Resorts & Entertainment had a net margin of 1.15% and a negative return on equity of 18.47%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.05 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Melco Resorts & Entertainment will post 0.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Melco Resorts & Entertainment

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. DAVENPORT & Co LLC boosted its stake in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 85,972 shares of the company’s stock valued at $453,000 after purchasing an additional 4,815 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 21.5% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 429,131 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,262,000 after purchasing an additional 75,935 shares during the period. ARGA Investment Management LP boosted its holdings in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 29,760,953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $156,840,000 after purchasing an additional 108,529 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 69.0% in the 1st quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 125,736 shares of the company’s stock valued at $663,000 after purchasing an additional 51,327 shares during the period. Finally, Trexquant Investment LP boosted its holdings in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 15.2% in the 1st quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 1,306,608 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,886,000 after purchasing an additional 171,960 shares during the period. 39.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.