Monarch Casino & Resort (NASDAQ:MCRI) Rating Lowered to “Buy” at StockNews.com

Monarch Casino & Resort (NASDAQ:MCRI) was downgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on MCRI. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Monarch Casino & Resort from $73.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Monarch Casino & Resort in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $79.00 price objective on the stock. Truist Financial upgraded shares of Monarch Casino & Resort from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $82.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Monarch Casino & Resort from $72.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $84.00.

Monarch Casino & Resort Stock Performance

Shares of MCRI opened at $85.81 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $82.62 and its 200 day moving average is $79.39. Monarch Casino & Resort has a fifty-two week low of $64.50 and a fifty-two week high of $89.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.58 billion, a PE ratio of 18.98 and a beta of 1.74.

Monarch Casino & Resort (NASDAQ:MCRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.23. Monarch Casino & Resort had a net margin of 16.82% and a return on equity of 17.06%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.03 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Monarch Casino & Resort will post 4.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO John Farahi sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.70, for a total transaction of $77,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 528,436 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $41,059,477.20. The trade was a 0.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 24.94% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Monarch Casino & Resort

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Monarch Casino & Resort by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,003,709 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,193,000 after purchasing an additional 9,234 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC lifted its stake in Monarch Casino & Resort by 47.0% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 6,737 shares of the company’s stock worth $532,000 after acquiring an additional 2,155 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Monarch Casino & Resort by 13.9% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 21,837 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,723,000 after acquiring an additional 2,664 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in Monarch Casino & Resort by 9.3% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 404,073 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,881,000 after acquiring an additional 34,384 shares during the period. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Monarch Casino & Resort in the fourth quarter worth about $380,000. 62.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Monarch Casino & Resort

Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc engages in the ownership and operation of the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, a hotel and casino facility in Reno, Nevada, and the Monarch Black Hawk Casino in Black Hawk, Colorado. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Reno, NV.