Boyd Gaming Co. (NYSE:BYD) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Boyd Gaming Co. (NYSE:BYD) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the sixteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $95.20.

Several analysts recently issued reports on BYD shares. Argus raised shares of Boyd Gaming from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Boyd Gaming from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Boyd Gaming in a report on Friday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Boyd Gaming from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $73.00 to $92.00 in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Boyd Gaming from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $82.00 to $81.00 in a report on Monday, February 24th.

Boyd Gaming Stock Performance

Shares of BYD stock opened at $68.48 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $74.64 and a 200-day moving average of $70.48. Boyd Gaming has a 52 week low of $49.34 and a 52 week high of $80.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.85. The company has a market cap of $5.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 1.55.

Boyd Gaming (NYSE:BYD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $1.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.21. Boyd Gaming had a net margin of 14.70% and a return on equity of 35.97%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Boyd Gaming will post 6.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Boyd Gaming Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued a $0.18 dividend. This is an increase from Boyd Gaming’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. Boyd Gaming’s payout ratio is 11.58%.

Boyd Gaming announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, December 5th that allows the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Boyd Gaming

In other news, Director Christine J. Spadafor sold 1,125 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.28, for a total value of $84,690.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 4,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $365,258.56. This represents a 18.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.68, for a total transaction of $3,884,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 1,346,628 shares in the company, valued at approximately $104,606,063.04. The trade was a 3.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,125 shares of company stock valued at $5,158,490 over the last three months. 27.94% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Boyd Gaming

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Boyd Gaming by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 5,265,454 shares of the company’s stock worth $381,929,000 after buying an additional 21,616 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its position in shares of Boyd Gaming by 36.9% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,955,544 shares of the company’s stock worth $287,185,000 after purchasing an additional 1,065,887 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Boyd Gaming by 0.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,108,672 shares of the company’s stock worth $136,680,000 after purchasing an additional 17,591 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of Boyd Gaming by 51.7% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,296,863 shares of the company’s stock worth $94,074,000 after purchasing an additional 441,963 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Boyd Gaming by 3.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,153,768 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,611,000 after purchasing an additional 33,379 shares during the last quarter. 76.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.