Federated Hermes Inc. Trims Holdings in Light & Wonder, Inc. (NASDAQ:LNW)

Federated Hermes Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Light & Wonder, Inc. (NASDAQ:LNW) by 14.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 10,023 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,752 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Light & Wonder were worth $1,051,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its stake in Light & Wonder by 128.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 910,298 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,472,000 after purchasing an additional 511,081 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Light & Wonder by 95.7% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 896,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,601,000 after buying an additional 438,443 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Light & Wonder by 102.8% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 767,155 shares of the company’s stock worth $78,320,000 after buying an additional 388,781 shares in the last quarter. Ossiam bought a new stake in shares of Light & Wonder during the first quarter valued at approximately $13,578,000. Finally, M&G Plc purchased a new position in Light & Wonder in the 1st quarter worth approximately $10,570,000. Institutional investors own 88.08% of the company’s stock.

Light & Wonder Price Performance

NASDAQ LNW opened at $112.57 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $106.04 and its 200 day moving average is $100.72. Light & Wonder, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $67.71 and a fifty-two week high of $115.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.90, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 1.85. The company has a market capitalization of $10.15 billion, a PE ratio of 46.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 1.77.

Light & Wonder (NASDAQ:LNW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $818.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $798.09 million. Light & Wonder had a net margin of 9.92% and a return on equity of 40.51%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.02 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Light & Wonder, Inc. will post 4.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Light & Wonder declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, August 7th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 10.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on LNW shares. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $114.00 target price on shares of Light & Wonder in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Light & Wonder from $98.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Light & Wonder from $115.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Light & Wonder from $107.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Macquarie raised their target price on shares of Light & Wonder from $120.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Light & Wonder presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $108.20.

Light & Wonder Profile

Light & Wonder, Inc operates as a cross-platform games company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Gaming, SciPlay, and iGaming segments. The Gaming segment sells game content and gaming machine; video gaming terminals; video lottery terminals, including conversion kits and spare parts; and table products, including automatic card shufflers, deck checkers, table roulette chip sorters and other land-based table gaming equipment.