Golden Entertainment, Inc. $GDEN Shares Sold by William Blair Investment Management LLC

William Blair Investment Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Golden Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:GDEN) by 7.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 550,673 shares of the company’s stock after selling 44,592 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned about 2.08% of Golden Entertainment worth $16,206,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GDEN. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Golden Entertainment by 1,136.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,729 shares of the company’s stock worth $178,000 after acquiring an additional 6,185 shares in the last quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC grew its holdings in Golden Entertainment by 10.7% during the 1st quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 1,431,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,956,000 after acquiring an additional 138,137 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Golden Entertainment by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 102,344 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,701,000 after acquiring an additional 2,639 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Golden Entertainment by 9.0% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 80,241 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,118,000 after acquiring an additional 6,621 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its holdings in Golden Entertainment by 10.6% during the 1st quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 425,565 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,231,000 after acquiring an additional 40,826 shares in the last quarter. 70.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GDEN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JMP Securities decreased their price objective on shares of Golden Entertainment from $35.00 to $34.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Golden Entertainment from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Golden Entertainment from $36.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Zacks Research raised shares of Golden Entertainment from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Golden Entertainment in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $34.20.

Golden Entertainment Stock Performance

Shares of GDEN opened at $22.54 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $24.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $589.65 million, a PE ratio of 41.74 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. Golden Entertainment, Inc. has a 52-week low of $21.28 and a 52-week high of $35.49.

Golden Entertainment (NASDAQ:GDEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.03. Golden Entertainment had a net margin of 2.35% and a return on equity of 3.23%. The company had revenue of $163.62 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $169.70 million. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Golden Entertainment, Inc. will post 0.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Golden Entertainment Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 3rd. Investors of record on Thursday, September 25th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.4%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 25th. Golden Entertainment’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 185.19%.

Golden Entertainment Company Profile

Golden Entertainment, Inc owns and operates a diversified entertainment platform in the United States. The company operates through four segments; Nevada Casino Resorts, Nevada Locals Casinos, Nevada Taverns, and Distributed Gaming. It also operates casino, casino resorts, and taverns; and slot machines in third party non-casino locations.