Monarch Casino & Resort (NASDAQ:MCRI) Lowered 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 issued to investors on Wednesday morning.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on MCRI. 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 for the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Monarch Casino & Resort from $72.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Monarch Casino & Resort from $73.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Truist Financial upgraded 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $87.20.

Monarch Casino & Resort Stock Up 7.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ MCRI opened at $92.57 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $82.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $79.48. Monarch Casino & Resort has a 52-week low of $64.50 and a 52-week 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 announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 16.82%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.03 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Monarch Casino & Resort will post 4.73 EPS for the current year.

Monarch Casino & Resort Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Monarch Casino & Resort

In other Monarch Casino & Resort news, CEO John Farahi sold 1,000 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 528,436 shares in the company, valued at approximately $41,059,477.20. The trade was a 0.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 24.94% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of MCRI. Trexquant Investment LP bought a new position in Monarch Casino & Resort in the 4th quarter valued at about $356,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Monarch Casino & Resort by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 15,381 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,214,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Monarch Casino & Resort in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $480,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Monarch Casino & Resort by 103.5% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 133,673 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,547,000 after acquiring an additional 67,973 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Monarch Casino & Resort during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,653,000. 62.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.