Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) Cut to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Saturday morning.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on MLCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment from $10.50 to $11.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, CLSA raised Melco Resorts & Entertainment from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $8.40.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Price Performance

NASDAQ:MLCO opened at $7.83 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $8.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $8.61. Melco Resorts & Entertainment has a 1-year low of $4.55 and a 1-year high of $10.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.12 and a beta of 0.64.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. Melco Resorts & Entertainment had a net margin of 2.06% and a negative return on equity of 23.00%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.06 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Melco Resorts & Entertainment will post 0.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Melco Resorts & Entertainment

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MLCO. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 21.5% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 429,131 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,262,000 after acquiring an additional 75,935 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 1,819.4% in the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 5,497,684 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,748,000 after purchasing an additional 5,211,263 shares during the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP increased its holdings in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 15.2% in the first 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. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 271.3% in the second quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 1,473,502 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,653,000 after purchasing an additional 1,076,606 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment during the second quarter worth approximately $355,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 39.62% of the company’s stock.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Company Profile

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ: MLCO) is a developer, owner and operator of integrated resort destinations in Asia and Europe. The company’s portfolio spans casino gaming, hotel accommodations, retail, dining and entertainment facilities. Melco’s properties feature a mix of luxury hotels, award-winning restaurants, high-limit gaming salons and entertainment venues, catering to a broad range of leisure and business travelers.

In Macau, Melco owns and operates flagship properties including City of Dreams Macau, Altira Macau and Studio City.