Stock traders buy high volume of Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) call options

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ:MLCO – Get Free Report ) was the target of unusually heavy options trading on Friday. Investors in the stock purchased 4,077 call options on the company. This represents an increase of about 53% from the average daily volume of 2,665 call options.

Institutional Trading of Melco Resorts & Entertainment

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new position in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,024,000. National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 50,917.6% in the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 761,693 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,030,000 after acquiring an additional 760,200 shares in the last quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP purchased a new stake in Melco Resorts & Entertainment in the 1st quarter worth $1,319,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,715,440 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,696,000 after buying an additional 366,031 shares during the period. Finally, NWI Management LP lifted its position in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 13.7% in the first quarter. NWI Management LP now owns 915,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,597,000 after buying an additional 110,000 shares during the last quarter. 39.62% of shares are currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts set new price targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MLCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Melco Resorts & Entertainment from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $10.00 to $7.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment from $13.75 to $14.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $8.30 to $9.60 in a research note from Monday, May 6. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on Melco Resorts & Entertainment from $15.00 to $11.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price target on Melco Resorts & Entertainment from $8.50 to $7.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. August 12. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $9.82.

Read our latest analysis of MLCO

Melco Resorts & Entertainment stocks rose 0.4%

Shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment stock opened at $5.20 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $6.58 and its 200-day moving average price is $7.29. The company has a market cap of $2.31 billion, a PE ratio of -12.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 1.04. Melco Resorts & Entertainment has a 12-month low of $4.78 and a 12-month high of $11.43.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO – Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 13th. The company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.10 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.16 billion. Melco Resorts & Entertainment had a negative return on equity of 7.61% and a negative net margin of 4.34%. The company’s revenue was up 22.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.02) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Melco Resorts & Entertainment will post 0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Company Profile

(Get a free report)

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited, through its subsidiaries, develops, owns and operates gaming and entertainment casino facilities in Asia. Owns and operates City of Dreams, an integrated casino complex that has 500 gaming tables and 800 gaming machines; approximately 1,400 hotel rooms and suites; a wet performance theater with approximately 2,000 seats; approximately 30 restaurants and bars and 150 retail outlets; and recreation and leisure facilities, including health and fitness clubs, swimming pools, spas and salons, and banquet and meeting rooms.

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