Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Receives A Higher Estimate

Las Vegas Sands is an operator of resort locations and casinos in Las Vegas and Macao China. It’s stock has a current market cap of $25.7 Billion with no dividend. The price of the stock took a hit during the recession as vacation traffic diminished but has seen a strong rebound  over the past 52 weeks.

In fact the stock hit a new 52-week high on October 8th of $37.47 a share. This was after an upgrade by KeyBanc Capital Markets at the end of September. The company has been able to outperform analysts estimates on earnings three out of the last four quarters. And current quarter earnings estimates continue to climb from 12 cents a share to 23 cents a share last week.

Revenue is also expanding with current quarter revenue expected to be 56% better than the same period a year ago. For the year, revenue is estimated to be on average $6.59 billion, a 44.4% improvement year over year. The price to earnings ratio (P/E) is a healthy 48.35 but this only translates to a 0.56 PEG ratio due to the great earnings growth the company is experiencing.

In a recent buy rating release, Robert A LaFleur felt the stock could climb to $46 a share from the current price of $38.94. The Hudson Securities analyst likes the growth the company is producing in China and in a newly developed resort in Singapore. He sees the company as the ‘best’ way to play Asian growth at this time. The stock was flat today after the buy rating re-iteration.

Options for October were very action on the day with Calls near the money having strong volume. The October options expire on Friday, so November 2010 options would be a sounder selection if a derivative of the stock itself is desired for a trade. The chart trend of the stock is clearly in the green with the price approaching overbought levels. I feel you could purchase the stock on dips for some smaller gains although much of the growth might already be priced in.