GGRAsia – Goldman Sachs downgrades Wynn Resorts after Aug uptick

Goldman Sachs downgrades Wynn Resorts after Aug uptick

Sep 09, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck, World

Investment banking group Goldman Sachs has downgraded the stock of United States-based casino operator Wynn Resorts Ltd, to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’.

In a Monday note, the institution also removed the shares from its so-called conviction-buy list, mentioning as a factor, slow recovery in terms of getting to pre-pandemic business levels at Wynn Resorts’ Macau operation. The latter is normally a major contributor to the brand’s earnings.

Wynn Resorts, an operator also in the Las Vegas, Nevada, and Boston, Massachusetts markets, is the parent of Macau casino licensee Wynn Macau Ltd.

August gains in Wynn Resorts shares had contributed to the downgrade, said Goldman Sachs. Wynn Resorts’ stock had risen 14.0 percent toward the end of that month, from US$80.28 on August 20, to US$91.55 on August 28, according to Bloomberg data.

At the close of business in New York on Tuesday, Wynn Resorts’ shares stood at US$82.68, down 5.75 percent on the day.

On August 5, Hong Kong-listed Wynn Macau Ltd had confirmed a nearly US$351.6-million net loss in the second quarter, compared to a US$168.6-million profit in the equivalent quarter a year earlier.

Wynn Macau Ltd had said its operating casino revenues for the three months to June 30 were negative by almost US$15.0 million, impacted by negative VIP hold.

Brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd had nonetheless stated in a Monday note that “over the near term,” as Macau gross gaming revenue (GGR) “begins to recover, we prefer beaten-down operators who have greater exposure to premium consumers”. That institution singled out Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd and Wynn Macau Ltd.

In the same note, Sanford Bernstein had estimated that average Macau daily GGR in the first six days of September was nearly double the average daily rate across the whole of August.

It mentioned that had coincided with an uptick in the volume of mainland Chinese visiting Macau, as China engaged in a phased return of its Individual Visit Scheme exit visas for tourism to Macau.