Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.20

Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 23rd, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 5th will be given a dividend of 0.20 per share by the casino operator on Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 5th.

Las Vegas Sands has decreased its dividend by an average of 20.3% per year over the last three years. Las Vegas Sands has a payout ratio of 28.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Las Vegas Sands to earn $2.76 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.0%.

Las Vegas Sands Trading Up 2.8 %

NYSE:LVS traded up $1.43 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $52.47. The stock had a trading volume of 8,057,154 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,774,551. Las Vegas Sands has a one year low of $36.62 and a one year high of $55.65. The company has a market capitalization of $39.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.35, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.12. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $44.94 and a 200 day moving average of $44.40. The company has a quick ratio of 1.57, a current ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.29.

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The casino operator reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.09). Las Vegas Sands had a return on equity of 44.41% and a net margin of 14.08%. The firm had revenue of $2.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.79 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.55 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Las Vegas Sands will post 2.45 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group cut Las Vegas Sands from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $49.00 in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Macquarie lowered their target price on Las Vegas Sands from $58.00 to $56.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Las Vegas Sands from $53.00 to $47.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 11th. StockNews.com lowered Las Vegas Sands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Las Vegas Sands from $55.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Las Vegas Sands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.92.

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.