Short Interest in Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ:MLCO) Grows By 29.1%

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ:MLCO) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 12,470,000 shares, an increase of 29.1% from the June 30th total of 9,660,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,130,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.0 days. Currently, 2.9% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Melco Resorts & Entertainment

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. ARGA Investment Management LP increased its holdings in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 6.1% during the 1st quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 29,336,228 shares of the company’s stock valued at $211,514,000 after acquiring an additional 1,695,442 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 22.6% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 21,460,223 shares of the company’s stock valued at $154,728,000 after buying an additional 3,958,998 shares during the last quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. increased its position in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 16.2% during the second quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 15,500,865 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,636,000 after buying an additional 2,166,524 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 3.2% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,464,508 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,079,000 after acquiring an additional 412,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,715,440 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,696,000 after acquiring an additional 366,031 shares during the last quarter. 39.62% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MLCO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment from $15.00 to $11.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Melco Resorts & Entertainment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $8.30 to $9.60 in a research report on Monday, May 6th. StockNews.com raised Melco Resorts & Entertainment from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Melco Resorts & Entertainment from $13.75 to $14.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America cut their price target on Melco Resorts & Entertainment from $10.40 to $8.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $10.02.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MLCO opened at $5.82 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 1.04. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $7.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $7.54. Melco Resorts & Entertainment has a 12 month low of $5.67 and a 12 month high of $13.91.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.02. Melco Resorts & Entertainment had a negative return on equity of 7.61% and a negative net margin of 4.34%. The company had revenue of $1.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.14) earnings per share. Melco Resorts & Entertainment’s quarterly revenue was up 55.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Melco Resorts & Entertainment will post 0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Company Profile

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited, through its subsidiaries, develops, owns, and operates casino gaming and entertainment casino resort facilities in Asia. It owns and operates City of Dreams, an integrated casino resort that has 500 gaming tables and 800 gaming machines; approximately 1,400 hotel rooms and suites; a wet stage performance theater with approximately 2,000 seats; approximately 30 restaurants and bars, and 150 retail outlets; and recreation and leisure facilities, including health and fitness clubs, swimming pools, spa and salons, and banquet and meeting facilities.