Ballentine Partners LLC Purchases New Position in Las Vegas Sands Corp. $LVS

Key Points

• Ballentine Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Las Vegas Sands Corp. by purchasing 4,948 shares valued at approximately $215,000 during the second quarter.
• Various hedge funds have significantly increased their holdings in Las Vegas Sands, with MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB and Farther Finance Advisors LLC both raising their stakes by over 133% and 37.5% respectively.
• Las Vegas Sands recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share, representing an annualized yield of 1.8% and a payout ratio of 50.51%.

Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 4,948 shares of the casino operator's stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of LVS. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its holdings in Las Vegas Sands by 37.5% during the 2nd quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 876 shares of the casino operator's stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the period. Center for Financial Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Las Vegas Sands during the 1st quarter valued at about $42,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Las Vegas Sands by 133.1% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the casino operator's stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 856 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in Las Vegas Sands by 53.8% during the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,361 shares of the casino operator's stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 476 shares during the period. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Las Vegas Sands by 27.4% during the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,272 shares of the casino operator's stock valued at $99,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 39.16% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on LVS. UBS Group upped their target price on Las Vegas Sands from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Bank of America upped their target price on Las Vegas Sands from $52.50 to $58.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Argus upped their target price on Las Vegas Sands from $60.00 to $65.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Mizuho upped their target price on Las Vegas Sands from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Las Vegas Sands from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $59.80.

Las Vegas Sands Stock Performance

LVS stock opened at $55.26 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.93 billion, a PE ratio of 27.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.04. Las Vegas Sands Corp. has a 12-month low of $30.18 and a 12-month high of $58.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.53. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $53.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.18.

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The casino operator reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $3.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. Las Vegas Sands had a net margin of 12.16% and a return on equity of 55.37%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.55 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Las Vegas Sands Corp. will post 2.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Las Vegas Sands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 5th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 5th. Las Vegas Sands's dividend payout ratio is presently 50.51%.

Las Vegas Sands Profile

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.

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