Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) Wednesday reported a near fifteen percent jump in first-quarter profit that topped Wall Street estimates, as the casino operator benefited from growth at its Macau operations, with its capacious "Cotai Central project" drawing a good number of visitors.
Macau, a rewarding market for casino operators like Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN), is the only place in China where gambling is allowed and is the biggest such center in the world. Las Vegas Sands last April opened its Sands Cotai Central project, with 2,100 Sheraton rooms opened in January 2013.
Meanwhile, rival Wynn is constructing an integrated resort on the Cotai land in order to take on the competition. The resort, which is expected to open in the first half of 2016, has a construction budget of $3.5 billion to $4 billion.
Las Vegas Sands reported quarterly net income to common shares of $572 million or $0.69 per share, compared to $499 million or $0.61 per share last year.
Results for the prior-year quarter included impairment charges of $43 million.
Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $584 million or $0.71 per share, compared to $570 million or $0.70 per share a year ago. On average, 22 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.67 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Operating income for the quarter grew 16.8 percent to $826.7 million, on growth in Macao, partly offset by charges related to the opening of Sands Cotai Central and lower table games hold in Singapore.
The company's first quarter revenues increased a near 20 percent to $3.3 billion from $2.76 billion in the prior year. Twenty-three analysts had consensus revenue estimate of $3.27 billion.
At its China operations, Sands China Ltd., revenues surged 39 percent from last year to $2.02 billion, with Sands Cotai Central chipping in with revenues of $587 million. Sands China saw 14 million visits to its Cotai Strip properties in Macau.
Revenues at Marina Bay Sands operations in Singapore slid 6.3 percent, while Las Vegas operations gained 7 percent.
The company plans to pay its next recurring quarterly dividend of $0.35 per common share on June 28 to shareholders of record June 20.
Last month, Wynn Resorts posted a higher quarterly profit, on a 4.4 percent revenue growth in Macau and a 6.6 percent increase in Las Vegas.
The company's stock closed Wednesday at $56.25, unchanged from the prior day's close. In after-hours, the stock gained $0.55 or 0.98%. In the past year, the stock traded in a range of $34.72 - $57.11.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com