Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. Sells 333,451 Shares of Las Vegas Sands Corp. $LVS

Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. lowered its position in Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) by 41.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 469,292 shares of the casino operator’s stock after selling 333,451 shares during the period. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. owned about 0.07% of Las Vegas Sands worth $25,243,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of LVS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 4.4% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,072,014 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $1,874,063,000 after acquiring an additional 1,822,806 shares during the period. ARGA Investment Management LP raised its stake in Las Vegas Sands by 36.8% during the 2nd quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 10,040,975 shares of the casino operator’s stock valued at $436,883,000 after purchasing an additional 2,698,398 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Las Vegas Sands by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,902,619 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $430,863,000 after purchasing an additional 459,821 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Las Vegas Sands by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,823,966 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $382,294,000 after purchasing an additional 31,153 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Las Vegas Sands during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $134,179,000. 39.16% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on LVS. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Las Vegas Sands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Zacks Research cut shares of Las Vegas Sands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Las Vegas Sands from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Mizuho boosted their target price on Las Vegas Sands from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Argus raised their price target on Las Vegas Sands from $65.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Las Vegas Sands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.52.

Las Vegas Sands Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of LVS stock opened at $66.20 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $44.76 billion, a PE ratio of 29.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.97. Las Vegas Sands Corp. has a 1 year low of $30.18 and a 1 year high of $70.45. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $63.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $55.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.42, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The casino operator reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $3.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. Las Vegas Sands had a return on equity of 73.14% and a net margin of 12.69%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 24.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.44 EPS. Research analysts predict that Las Vegas Sands Corp. will post 2.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Las Vegas Sands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 4th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 4th. Las Vegas Sands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Miriam Adelson sold 77,991 shares of Las Vegas Sands stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.56, for a total value of $5,269,071.96. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 23,333,441 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,576,407,273.96. This trade represents a 0.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Robert G. Goldstein sold 1,198,650 shares of Las Vegas Sands stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.68, for a total value of $79,925,982.00. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 5,182,053 shares of company stock valued at $333,348,399. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Las Vegas Sands

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) is a global developer and operator of integrated resorts, focused on large-scale properties that combine casino gaming with hotels, convention and exhibition facilities, retail, dining, and entertainment. The company’s operations center on developing and managing full-service resort complexes that serve both leisure and business travelers, with emphasis on convention and trade-show business in addition to gaming revenue streams.

The company’s portfolio has included prominent properties in North America and Asia, most notably The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, along with a significant presence in Macau through multiple integrated resorts.