Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) Trading Down 5% – Should You Sell?

Shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ:MLCO) traded down 5% on Friday . The company traded as low as $8.47 and last traded at $8.48. 797,988 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 3,678,548 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.93.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup raised their price objective on Melco Resorts & Entertainment from $11.00 to $11.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Zacks Research raised Melco Resorts & Entertainment from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Melco Resorts & Entertainment from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 26th. CLSA raised Melco Resorts & Entertainment from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment in a report on Saturday, September 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Melco Resorts & Entertainment has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $8.15.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $3.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.85 and a beta of 0.71. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $7.37.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.20 billion. Melco Resorts & Entertainment had a negative return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 1.15%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.05 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited will post 0.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Melco Resorts & Entertainment

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MLCO. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 447,953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,594,000 after purchasing an additional 67,581 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 88.1% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,171 shares of the company’s stock valued at $75,000 after purchasing an additional 6,638 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 37.1% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 208,883 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,101,000 after buying an additional 56,485 shares during the last quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC boosted its stake in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 85,972 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,000 after buying an additional 4,815 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ARGA Investment Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 29,760,953 shares of the company’s stock worth $156,840,000 after buying an additional 108,529 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 39.62% of the company’s stock.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Company Profile

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited, through its subsidiaries, develops, owns, and operates casino gaming and entertainment casino resort facilities in Asia. It owns and operates City of Dreams, an integrated casino resort that has 500 gaming tables and 800 gaming machines; approximately 1,400 hotel rooms and suites; a wet stage performance theater with approximately 2,000 seats; approximately 30 restaurants and bars, and 150 retail outlets; and recreation and leisure facilities, including health and fitness clubs, swimming pools, spa and salons, and banquet and meeting facilities.