Light & Wonder (NASDAQ:LNW) Raised to Buy at UBS Group

Light & Wonder (NASDAQ:LNW) was upgraded by investment analysts at UBS Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Briefing.com reports.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Light & Wonder from $107.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Macquarie raised their price objective 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. Maxim Group initiated coverage on shares of Light & Wonder in a research report on Monday, August 26th. They set a “buy” rating and a $144.00 target price for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Light & Wonder from $76.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $114.00 target price on shares of Light & Wonder in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $107.70.

Light & Wonder Stock Down 19.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ LNW opened at $90.71 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $8.05 billion, a PE ratio of 37.64, a P/E/G ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 1.77. Light & Wonder has a 12-month low of $67.71 and a 12-month high of $115.00. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $105.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $100.73. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.90.

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

Light & Wonder declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 7th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to purchase up to 10.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Light & Wonder

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Light & Wonder in the first quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Light & Wonder during the first quarter valued at approximately $38,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Light & Wonder by 59.6% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 407 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. bought a new stake in Light & Wonder during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $69,000. Finally, KBC Group NV bought a new stake in Light & Wonder during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $153,000. 88.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Light & Wonder

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.