Raymond James Trust N.A. Grows Position in Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS)

Raymond James Trust N.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,062 shares of the casino operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 229 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A.’s holdings in Las Vegas Sands were worth $255,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 19.0% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 17,103 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $884,000 after buying an additional 2,736 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank increased its stake in Las Vegas Sands by 1.6% in the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 61,758 shares of the casino operator’s stock valued at $3,193,000 after acquiring an additional 959 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Las Vegas Sands during the first quarter valued at about $734,000. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in Las Vegas Sands by 148.3% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 32,443 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $1,677,000 after purchasing an additional 19,376 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Las Vegas Sands in the 1st quarter worth about $364,000. 39.16% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Robert G. Goldstein sold 119,221 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.73, for a total transaction of $6,405,744.33. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 84,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,540,776.03. The trade was a 58.52 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on LVS shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Las Vegas Sands from $53.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Las Vegas Sands from $51.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $58.00.

Las Vegas Sands Price Performance

LVS opened at $51.43 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.09, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.29 billion, a PE ratio of 25.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $50.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $44.94. Las Vegas Sands Corp. has a 52-week low of $36.62 and a 52-week high of $55.65.

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The casino operator reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $2.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.79 billion. Las Vegas Sands had a net margin of 13.29% and a return on equity of 44.26%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.55 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Las Vegas Sands Corp. will post 2.33 EPS for the current year.

Las Vegas Sands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 5th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 5th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. Las Vegas Sands’s payout ratio is 39.60%.

About Las Vegas Sands

Las Vegas Sands Corp., together with its subsidiaries, develops, owns, and operates integrated resorts in Macao and Singapore. It owns and operates The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, the Londoner Macao, The Parisian Macao, The Plaza Macao and Four Seasons Hotel Macao, Cotai Strip, and the Sands Macao in Macao, the People’s Republic of China; and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.