{"id":303874,"date":"2023-12-18T15:55:36","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T21:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=303874"},"modified":"2023-12-19T11:26:42","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T17:26:42","slug":"melco-resorts-could-be-2024-winner-among-macau-stocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/melco-resorts-could-be-2024-winner-among-macau-stocks\/","title":{"rendered":"Melco Resorts Has \u2018Ammunition\u2019 for 2024 Macau Growth, Says Analyst"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ: MLCO) has the ingredients to outgrow rival Macau concessionaires in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"Melco
Melco Resorts CEO Lawrence Ho in a 2017 interview in Macau. JPMorgan is bullish on the stock as a 2024 Macau idea. (Image: Bloomberg<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s the take of JPMorgan analyst Joseph Greff, who recently met with Melco CEO Lawrence Ho and CFO Geoff Davis. It\u2019s believed that was the City of Dreams operator\u2019s first meeting with U.S.-based investors in some time. Greff believes Melco has the \u201cammunition\u201d to deliver superior growth rates in 2024 relative to its rivals in Macau.<\/p>\n

(Melco has) easier year-over-year comparisons than peers (1Q and 2Q23 performance lagged the market a bit,\u201d<\/strong> observed the analyst. \u201cThe ability to generate incremental growth from Phase 2 expansion at Studio City (official grand opening launch on February\/March 2024.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Greff rates the stock \u201coverweight\u201d with a $10 price target, which implies an upside of 15.7% from Monday\u2019s close of $8.64. Although Melco is higher by 21.86% over the past month, the stock is down 24.87% year to date and resides 40.23% below its 52-week high.<\/p>\n

Melco Resorts Has Solid Balance Sheet<\/h2>\n

Melco\u2019s 2023 struggles have the stock trading at deeply discounted multiples<\/a>, a status shared by its Macau casino operator brethren. The shares are as cheap as they\u2019ve been in over a year.<\/p>\n

\n

Still, Ho\u2019s gaming company has a strong cash position. At the end of the third quarter, Melco had $1.2 billion in cash on hand, not including restricted cash. That implies some value because the operator\u2019s market capitalization is $3.1 billion, perhaps indicating the investment community isn\u2019t giving the gaming company the credit it deserves for its cash stockpile.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Additionally, that sturdy balance sheet indicates Melco can service its liabilities for the foreseeable future \u2014 a relevant point when considering Macau concessionaires\u2019 debt<\/a> ballooned due to the coronavirus pandemic. Melco has no debt coming due before 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to\u202fanticipate debt pay down (both through its excess cash balance and cash flow from operations) and see its non-Macau operations as steady,\u201d noted Greff.<\/p>\n

Mass, Premium-Mass Players Could Boost Melco<\/h2>\n

In Macau, Melco could benefit in 2024 from ongoing vibrancy in the mass and premium-mass segments, leveraging increased marketing and special events to lure those players to the particular administrative region (SAR). Fortunately, those bettors and their VIP peers don\u2019t appear worried about lethargy in the broader Chinese economy.<\/p>\n

Players seem to be a lot less concerned than investors about the current state of the [Chinese] economy and the recent surge of respiratory illness in China, and they\u2026 demonstrate their still-resilient luxury spending behavior,\u201d<\/strong> according to Citi analysts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Melco also offers investors the benefit of geographic diversity, as it operates in the Philippines and recently opened Europe\u2019s largest casino in Cyprus<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ: MLCO) has the ingredients to outgrow rival Macau concessionaires in 2024. That\u2019s the take of JPMorgan analyst Joseph Greff, who recently met with Melco CEO Lawrence Ho and CFO Geoff Davis. It\u2019s believed that was the City of Dreams operator\u2019s first meeting with U.S.-based investors in some time. Greff believes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":205350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069,10],"tags":[81913,81903],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMelco Resorts Could Be 2024 Winner Among Macau Stocks<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Melco Resorts could deliver more growth in 2024 than Macau peers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/melco-resorts-could-be-2024-winner-among-macau-stocks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Melco Resorts Could Be 2024 Winner Among Macau Stocks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Melco Resorts could deliver more growth in 2024 than Macau peers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/melco-resorts-could-be-2024-winner-among-macau-stocks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-18T21:55:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-19T17:26:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ho.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1333\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@etfgodfather\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/melco-resorts-could-be-2024-winner-among-macau-stocks\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/melco-resorts-could-be-2024-winner-among-macau-stocks\/\",\"name\":\"Melco Resorts Could Be 2024 Winner Among Macau Stocks\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/melco-resorts-could-be-2024-winner-among-macau-stocks\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/melco-resorts-could-be-2024-winner-among-macau-stocks\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ho.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-18T21:55:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-19T17:26:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\"},\"description\":\"Melco Resorts could deliver more growth in 2024 than Macau peers.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/melco-resorts-could-be-2024-winner-among-macau-stocks\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/melco-resorts-could-be-2024-winner-among-macau-stocks\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/melco-resorts-could-be-2024-winner-among-macau-stocks\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ho.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ho.jpg\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":1333,\"caption\":\"Melco Resorts CEO Lawrence Ho in a 2017 interview in Macau. 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