SJMHY - Macau casino stocks rally after gaming revenue hits post-pandemic high

2023-04-03 07:08:20 ET

Gross gaming revenue in Macau surged 246.9% year-over-year in March to 12.7B patacas ($1.58B) to top the consensus expectation for a rise of 205%. The gaming revenue tally was the highest for the Macau region since January of 2020, just before pandemic lockdowns began.

GGR was up 94.9% in Q1 to 34.6B patacas as Macau benefited from loosened travel restrictions and the return of some international traffic. The Chinese New Year also saw a jump in local traffic for Macau casinos.

Reactions: Bank of America said the Macau traffic trends have been strong enough to likely prompt positive 2023 earnings revisions. Deutsche Bank already raised estimates on Wynn Resorts ( NASDAQ: WYNN ) to account for the strong Macau trends. Moody's expects that Macau's mass-segment GGR will return to about 75% of its 2019 level in 2023 and fully recover in 2024, although VIP segment GGR is seen remaining low in both years because of tight regulatory restrictions on the operations of junkets. Leverage ratios are expected to improve, but remain somewhat elevated in 2023.

Macau casino stocks: Wynn Macau ( OTCPK:WYNMF ) ( OTCPK:WYNMY ), Wynn Resorts ( WYNN ) +5.66% premarket, Sands China ( OTCPK:SCHYY ) ( OTCPK:SCHYF ), Las Vegas Sands ( LVS ) +3.24% premarket, MGM China ( OTCPK:MCHVF ) ( OTCPK:MCHVY ). MGM Resorts ( MGM ), Galaxy Entertainment ( OTCPK:GXYEF ), SJM Holdings ( OTCPK:SJMHF ) ( OTCPK:SJMHY ), Melco Resorts & Entertainment ( MLCO ) +3.39% , Studio City International ( MSC ).

Wynn Resorts ( WYNN ) has the highest Seeking Alpha Quant Rating score in the casino sector at 4.98.

Las Vegas Sands ( LVS ) has the highest consensus rating from Seeking Alpha authors.

For further details see: