Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) Rating Lowered to Neutral at Susquehanna

Key Points

• Susquehanna downgraded Melco Resorts & Entertainment to Neutral from Positive and set a $4 price target, implying about 15% downside from the stock’s then-current price.
• Analyst opinions remain mixed: MarketBeat reports a consensus Hold rating and a $6.45 average price target, with three Buy, four Hold, and two Sell ratings.
• Melco beat quarterly EPS expectations with $0.02 per share versus an expected $0.03 loss, but revenue of $1.17 billion missed estimates and fell 10.4% year over year.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO - Get Free Report) was downgraded by Susquehanna from a "positive" rating to a "neutral" rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $4.00 target price on the stock. Susquehanna's price target would indicate a potential downside of 15.07% from the stock's current price.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on MLCO. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d)" rating on shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Capital One Financial set a $5.50 target price on shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment in a report on Friday, October 16th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment in a research note on Monday, October 12th. They set a "buy" rating and a $9.40 price objective on the stock. Piper Sandler set a $5.50 target price on shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment in a report on Friday, October 16th. Finally, CLSA raised shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment from a "hold" rating to an "outperform" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $6.10 to $6.00 in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Melco Resorts & Entertainment currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $6.45.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Trading Up 12.1%

MLCO stock opened at $4.71 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $4.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $5.37. Melco Resorts & Entertainment has a 1 year low of $3.67 and a 1 year high of $9.53. The firm has a market cap of $1.79 billion, a PE ratio of 7.85, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.49.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.21 billion. Melco Resorts & Entertainment had a negative return on equity of 23.81% and a net margin of 4.50%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.21 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Melco Resorts & Entertainment will post 0.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Melco Resorts & Entertainment

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 1,370.8% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,045 shares of the company's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 4,702 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 71.5% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 7,570 shares of the company's stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 3,155 shares during the last quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. purchased a new position in Melco Resorts & Entertainment in the 1st quarter worth about $68,000. Leo Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment during the 3rd quarter worth $54,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Melco Resorts & Entertainment during the second quarter valued at approximately $73,000. 39.62% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Melco Resorts & Entertainment this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Melco earned $0.02 per share, beating analysts’ estimate of a $0.03 loss. The earnings surprise was a positive compared with expectations, although profit was below the $0.21 per share reported a year earlier. Zacks Q3 earnings report
• Negative Sentiment: Revenue was $1.17 billion, below the $1.21 billion analyst estimate and down 10.4% year over year. The revenue shortfall and steep decline in earnings from a year ago temper the positive EPS surprise. MarketScreener earnings results

About Melco Resorts & Entertainment

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited is a developer, owner and operator of integrated resort facilities focused on gaming, hospitality, entertainment, dining, retail and convention services. The company's properties combine casinos with luxury hotels, restaurants, shopping areas, theaters and other leisure attractions.

Melco operates several major resorts in Macau, including City of Dreams, Altira Macau and Studio City. Its Macau operations also include the Mocha Clubs electronic gaming-machine business.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.