Empowered Funds LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS)

Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,050 shares of the casino operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Las Vegas Sands were worth $305,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LVS. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Las Vegas Sands by 7,647.7% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 443,325 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $19,617,000 after purchasing an additional 437,603 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Las Vegas Sands during the 2nd quarter valued at $619,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 29.9% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 833,487 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $36,882,000 after buying an additional 191,805 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 33.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 548,072 shares of the casino operator’s stock worth $27,590,000 after acquiring an additional 136,859 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position 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 valued at $1,677,000 after acquiring an additional 19,376 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 39.16% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Robert G. Goldstein sold 24,324 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.00, for a total value of $1,264,848.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 60,187 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,129,724. This trade represents a 28.78 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Las Vegas Sands Price Performance

Shares of Las Vegas Sands stock opened at $51.41 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $37.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.45, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.09. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $44.87. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The casino operator reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.09). Las Vegas Sands had a return on equity of 44.26% and a net margin of 13.29%. The business had revenue of $2.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.79 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.55 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Las Vegas Sands Corp. will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Las Vegas Sands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 5th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 5th. Las Vegas Sands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.60%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on LVS shares. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Las Vegas Sands from $55.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $53.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Las Vegas Sands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.00.

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.