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Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) may be hurt by new Chinese regulations
Many casino stocks are hurting today, on reports that the city of Macau may be considering restricting tourism. Case in point is Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS), which was last seen 4.5% lower at $56.05. In the stock's options pits, puts are crossing the tape at a 70% mark-up to the normal intraday volume. One contract speculators are focusing on is the April 52.50 put, which it seems some traders are buying to open. These speculators are betting on LVS to slide below $52.50 by the close on Friday, April 17, when back-month options expire.
In the past few weeks, put buying has been popular in LVS' options pits. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), for example, the stock's 50-day put/call volume ratio stands at 0.94 -- higher than 77% of all such readings from the past year. Simply stated, speculators have been buying to open the equity's puts over calls at an accelerated rate in recent months.
On the Street, six covering analysts rate LVS a "strong buy," while eight others call it a "hold." Also, the equity's consensus 12-month price target of $64.22 represents a 14.6% premium to current trading levels.
On a long-term basis, Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) has struggled on the charts. Specifically, the shares have dropped close to 33% year-over-year.