Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Decreases Position in Boyd Gaming Co. (NYSE:BYD)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lessened its holdings in shares of Boyd Gaming Co. (NYSE:BYD) by 3.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,400 shares of the company’s stock after selling 700 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Boyd Gaming were worth $1,335,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Burns Matteson Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Boyd Gaming in the 4th quarter valued at $392,000. Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in shares of Boyd Gaming by 219.0% during the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 29,998 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,176,000 after acquiring an additional 20,593 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Boyd Gaming in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $67,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in Boyd Gaming by 30.2% during the 4th quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 20,824 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,511,000 after acquiring an additional 4,828 shares in the last quarter. Finally, R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Boyd Gaming in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $156,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.81% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised Boyd Gaming from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $73.00 to $92.00 in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Mizuho upped their price objective 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Boyd Gaming from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Argus raised shares of Boyd Gaming from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Boyd Gaming from $82.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Christine J. Spadafor sold 660 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.68, for a total value of $49,948.80. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,977 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $452,339.36. This trade represents a 9.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Marianne Boyd Johnson sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.68, for a total value of $3,884,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 1,346,628 shares in the company, valued at approximately $104,606,063.04. This trade represents a 3.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 110,660 shares of company stock valued at $8,251,549 in the last 90 days. 27.94% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Boyd Gaming Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BYD opened at $78.57 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.85. The stock has a market cap of $6.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.63, a PEG ratio of 4.38 and a beta of 1.54. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $74.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $68.22. Boyd Gaming Co. has a 52 week low of $49.34 and a 52 week high of $80.50.

Boyd Gaming (NYSE:BYD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $1.96 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.21. Boyd Gaming had a net margin of 14.70% and a return on equity of 35.97%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Boyd Gaming Co. will post 6.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Boyd Gaming Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Boyd Gaming’s payout ratio is 10.93%.

Boyd Gaming declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, December 5th that allows the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.