Light & Wonder (NASDAQ:LNW) Upgraded by Craig Hallum to “Strong-Buy”

Light & Wonder (NASDAQ:LNW) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Craig Hallum to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Friday, Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on LNW. UBS Group raised Light & Wonder from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $114.00 price target on shares of Light & Wonder in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Macquarie cut their price objective on shares of Light & Wonder from $122.00 to $117.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Light & Wonder from $108.00 to $100.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Light & Wonder from $107.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $106.60.

Light & Wonder Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LNW opened at $94.17 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $8.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.07, a PEG ratio of 0.37 and a beta of 1.76. Light & Wonder has a 12 month low of $69.93 and a 12 month high of $115.00. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $103.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $100.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.90.

Light & Wonder (NASDAQ:LNW) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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). The company had revenue of $818.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $798.09 million. Light & Wonder had a return on equity of 40.51% and a net margin of 9.92%. Light & Wonder’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.02 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Light & Wonder will post 4.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Light & Wonder declared that its board has approved a stock buyback 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. KBC Group NV purchased a new position in Light & Wonder in the 4th quarter worth approximately $153,000. C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Light & Wonder in the 4th quarter worth $69,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Light & Wonder during the 4th quarter worth $157,000. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Light & Wonder during the 4th quarter valued at about $807,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings 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 valued at $73,601,000 after purchasing an additional 438,443 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.08% of the company’s stock.

Light & Wonder Company 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.