North Dakota State Investment Board Purchases New Stake in Las Vegas Sands Corp. $LVS

North Dakota State Investment Board purchased a new stake in Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 23,704 shares of the casino operator’s stock, valued at approximately $1,543,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Las Vegas Sands by 410.2% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 5,167,553 shares of the casino operator’s stock valued at $277,963,000 after acquiring an additional 4,154,753 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp raised its stake in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 33,102.6% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 3,060,288 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $197,463,000 after purchasing an additional 3,051,071 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its holdings in Las Vegas Sands by 43.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,454,013 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $293,371,000 after acquiring an additional 1,660,823 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Las Vegas Sands by 64.5% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,819,128 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $151,641,000 after acquiring an additional 1,105,630 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group increased its holdings in Las Vegas Sands by 4,504.2% in the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,028,808 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $55,340,000 after acquiring an additional 1,006,463 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 39.16% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. HSBC lifted their target price on Las Vegas Sands from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Barclays boosted their price objective on Las Vegas Sands from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Las Vegas Sands from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Las Vegas Sands in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Las Vegas Sands from $80.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.28.

Las Vegas Sands Price Performance

Shares of LVS stock opened at $49.91 on Wednesday. Las Vegas Sands Corp. has a twelve month low of $39.29 and a twelve month high of $70.45. The stock has a market cap of $33.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.48, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.85. The business’s fifty day moving average is $53.78 and its 200 day moving average is $59.02. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.64.

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The casino operator reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.15. Las Vegas Sands had a return on equity of 118.27% and a net margin of 13.41%.The firm had revenue of $3.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.32 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.59 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Las Vegas Sands Corp. will post 3.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Las Vegas Sands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 5th were paid a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 5th. Las Vegas Sands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.44%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Patrick Dumont sold 60,165 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.75, for a total transaction of $3,294,033.75. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 511,942 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,028,824.50. This represents a 10.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Las Vegas Sands Company Profile

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.