Holocene Advisors LP Takes Position in Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS)

Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 202,864 shares of the casino operator's stock, valued at approximately $10,212,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 987.0% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 5,549,615 shares of the casino operator's stock worth $245,570,000 after purchasing an additional 5,039,072 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 15.7% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 11,351,573 shares of the casino operator's stock worth $502,307,000 after acquiring an additional 1,536,754 shares during the last quarter. Charles Lim Capital Ltd boosted its position in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 178.3% during the second quarter. Charles Lim Capital Ltd now owns 1,600,000 shares of the casino operator's stock worth $70,800,000 after acquiring an additional 1,025,000 shares during the last quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP boosted its position in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 24.8% during the third quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 4,924,340 shares of the casino operator's stock worth $247,891,000 after acquiring an additional 977,636 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 44.1% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 2,949,670 shares of the casino operator's stock worth $130,523,000 after acquiring an additional 903,400 shares during the last quarter. 39.16% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Robert G. Goldstein sold 60,187 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.02, for a total value of $3,191,114.74. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Robert G. Goldstein sold 24,324 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.00, for a total transaction of $1,264,848.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 60,187 shares in the company, valued at $3,129,724. This represents a 28.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 203,732 shares of company stock worth $10,861,707 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on LVS shares. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $51.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Mizuho upped 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 note on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Argus downgraded shares of Las Vegas Sands from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $58.00.

Las Vegas Sands Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of LVS traded up $0.70 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $54.61. The stock had a trading volume of 4,958,491 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,742,848. The firm has a market cap of $39.59 billion, a PE ratio of 27.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.10. Las Vegas Sands Corp. has a 1 year low of $36.62 and a 1 year high of $55.65. The stock's 50 day moving average is $51.41 and its 200 day moving average is $45.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.09, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.89.

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The casino operator reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $2.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.79 billion. Las Vegas Sands had a return on equity of 44.26% and a net margin of 13.29%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.55 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Las Vegas Sands Corp. will post 2.33 EPS 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. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 5th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.47%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 5th. Las Vegas Sands's payout ratio is 39.60%.

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.