31,506 Shares in Las Vegas Sands Corp. $LVS Purchased by Perpetual Ltd

Perpetual Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 31,506 shares of the casino operator’s stock, valued at approximately $2,051,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of LVS. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 4.9% during 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. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its position in Las Vegas Sands by 43.8% in the third quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,454,013 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $293,371,000 after purchasing an additional 1,660,823 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in Las Vegas Sands by 410.2% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 5,167,553 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $277,963,000 after purchasing an additional 4,154,753 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Las Vegas Sands by 5.3% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,723,494 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $200,335,000 after buying an additional 187,389 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Las Vegas Sands by 64.5% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,819,128 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $151,641,000 after buying an additional 1,105,630 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 39.16% of the company’s stock.

Las Vegas Sands Price Performance

Las Vegas Sands stock opened at $54.37 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $55.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.58, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.14. The firm has a market cap of $36.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.89. Las Vegas Sands Corp. has a 52 week low of $30.18 and a 52 week high of $70.45.

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The casino operator reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $3.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.33 billion. Las Vegas Sands had a return on equity of 91.40% and a net margin of 12.50%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 26.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.54 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Las Vegas Sands Corp. will post 2.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Las Vegas Sands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 9th were given a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 9th. This is a boost from Las Vegas Sands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Las Vegas Sands’s dividend payout ratio is 51.28%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LVS. Barclays set a $64.00 price objective on shares of Las Vegas Sands in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Seaport Research Partners lowered their target price on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $75.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Las Vegas Sands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 14th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $75.50 to $76.75 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Las Vegas Sands from $76.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.55.

Insider Buying and Selling at Las Vegas Sands

In other news, CEO Patrick Dumont sold 60,165 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

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.