Monarch Casino & Resort (NASDAQ:MCRI) Downgraded to Buy Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Monarch Casino & Resort (NASDAQ:MCRI) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Wednesday.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on MCRI. Truist Financial raised Monarch Casino & Resort from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $82.00 to $100.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Monarch Casino & Resort from $72.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Monarch Casino & Resort from $73.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Monarch Casino & Resort in a report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $79.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $87.20.

Monarch Casino & Resort Price Performance

Shares of MCRI opened at $92.57 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $82.73 and its 200-day moving average is $79.48. Monarch Casino & Resort has a 12-month low of $64.50 and a 12-month high of $93.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.48 and a beta of 1.74.

Monarch Casino & Resort (NASDAQ:MCRI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported $1.36 earnings per share (EPS) 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 last year, the business earned $1.03 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Monarch Casino & Resort will post 4.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Monarch Casino & Resort Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, March 1st will be given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.30%. Monarch Casino & Resort’s payout ratio is presently 26.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO John Farahi sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $41,059,477.20. This trade represents a 0.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 24.94% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Monarch Casino & Resort by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 1,256,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,696,000 after buying an additional 19,845 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Monarch Casino & Resort by 0.9% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Monarch Casino & Resort by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 918,734 shares of the company’s stock valued at $72,488,000 after purchasing an additional 72,764 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 34,384 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in Monarch Casino & Resort by 0.9% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 388,658 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,809,000 after buying an additional 3,488 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.37% of the company’s stock.

Monarch Casino & Resort Company Profile

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.