Tumbling to a price of $40.47 during today's morning trading session, shares of Las Vegas Sands are now -20.67% below their average target price of $51.01. Does this mean the stock will reverse course? Analysts are giving LVS an average rating of buy and target prices ranging from 43.0 to 63.5 dollars per share.
The market seems to share this optimistic view, since Las Vegas Sands has a short interest of only 4.9% (this is the percentage of the share float that is being shorted). Each short position represents an investor's expectation that the price of the stock will decrease in the future.
Short selling involves borrowing shares and then selling them at current market prices. In the successful version of the strategy, the shares are purchased at a lower price at some time in the future. The investor then returns the shares to the lender, and keeps the profit made on the sell/buy transaction.
We can make inferences about the market sentiment surrounding Las Vegas Sands by analyzing its rate of institutional ownership. If institutions such as hedge funds and pension funds are the primary shareholders of a corporation, it most likely means that its shares are a good investment according to those institutions' analysts.
At 45.3%, the rate of institutional ownership is average, indicating that a sufficient number of institutions have concluded that it is a stable investment. Beware, however, that the rate of institutional ownership could also indicate an ongoing proxy battle or takeover attempt -- so you should also periodically check the news about a stock whose institutional ownership you are tracking.
Overall, there is positive market sentiment towards Las Vegas Sands because of an analyst consensus of strong upside potential, a buy rating, an average amount of shares sold short, and only a small number of institutional investors. Investors should not base their decisions on market sentiment only, they should also be aware of a stock's fundamentals before committing.
At a glance, here are some essential statistics you may want to know about LVS:
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It has trailing 12 month earnings per share (EPS) of $1.79 per share
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Las Vegas Sands has a trailing 12 month Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio of 22.6 while the S&P 500 average is 29.3
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The company has a Price to Book (P/B) ratio of 10.6 in contrast to the S&P 500's average ratio of 4.74
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Las Vegas Sands is a Consumer Discretionary company, and the sector average P/E and P/B ratios are 20.93 and 2.93 respectively
