Boyd Gaming (NYSE:BYD) Raised to Positive at Susquehanna

Susquehanna upgraded shares of Boyd Gaming (NYSE:BYD) from a neutral rating to a positive rating in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $77.00 price objective on the stock, down from their previous price objective of $79.00.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Boyd Gaming from $79.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com cut shares of Boyd Gaming from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Boyd Gaming in a report on Friday, February 7th. Argus upgraded shares of Boyd Gaming from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Boyd Gaming from $74.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.20.

Boyd Gaming Stock Performance

Boyd Gaming stock opened at $68.48 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $70.33. Boyd Gaming has a 1-year low of $49.34 and a 1-year high of $80.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market cap of $5.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 1.55.

Boyd Gaming (NYSE:BYD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $1.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.21. Boyd Gaming had a net margin of 14.70% and a return on equity of 35.97%. On average, analysts expect that Boyd Gaming will post 6.52 EPS for the current year.

Boyd Gaming Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. This is a positive change from Boyd Gaming’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.05%. Boyd Gaming’s dividend payout ratio is 11.58%.

Boyd Gaming announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, December 5th that allows the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 7.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Boyd Gaming news, Director Christine J. Spadafor sold 1,125 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.28, for a total value of $84,690.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 4,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $365,258.56. This represents a 18.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director William R. Boyd sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.32, for a total transaction of $1,189,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,472,970 shares in the company, valued at approximately $116,835,980.40. This represents a 1.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,125 shares of company stock worth $5,158,490 in the last ninety days. 27.94% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Boyd Gaming

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. US Bancorp DE grew its position in shares of Boyd Gaming by 21.0% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,590 shares of the company’s stock valued at $167,000 after buying an additional 449 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Boyd Gaming by 921.8% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 889 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 802 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd grew its position in shares of Boyd Gaming by 54.9% in the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 587 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 208 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Boyd Gaming by 85.3% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 943 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 434 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Boyd Gaming by 15.6% in the 3rd quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 68,683 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,440,000 after buying an additional 9,266 shares during the last quarter. 76.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Boyd Gaming

Boyd Gaming Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a multi-jurisdictional gaming company in Nevada, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The company operates through Las Vegas Locals, Downtown Las Vegas, Midwest & South, and Online segments.