NEW YORK (TheStreet) --Shares of Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (MPEL) are down by 3.21% to $21.40 on heavy volume in mid-afternoon trading on Tuesday, after Deutsche Bank (DB) - Get Report downgraded the casino operator to "sell" from "buy" and lowered its price target to $18 from $27.70 this morning.

The firm doesn't believe new casinos in Macau will help to drive growth in the region.

Revenue in China's Macau gambling hub has been on the decline since the Chinese government began its anti-corruption crackdown. The government's efforts have resulted in a number of high stakes players keeping away from the tables.

In February Macau reported a 49% decline in gaming revenue.

"I don't think brokers are encouraged enough to recommend buying at this moment. The number of visitors is dropping due to China's anti-corruption policies and operating costs are rising," Deutsche Bank said in an analyst note, Bloomberg reports.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates MELCO CROWN ENTMT LTD as a Buy with a ratings score of B-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate MELCO CROWN ENTMT LTD (MPEL) a BUY. This is driven by multiple strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and reasonable valuation levels. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had somewhat weak growth in earnings per share."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• The debt-to-equity ratio is somewhat low, currently at 0.98, and is less than that of the industry average, implying that there has been a relatively successful effort in the management of debt levels. Along with this, the company maintains a quick ratio of 2.59, which clearly demonstrates the ability to cover short-term cash needs.
• MPEL, with its decline in revenue, underperformed when compared the industry average of 7.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues fell by 19.6%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
• Despite any intermediate fluctuations, we have only bad news to report on this stock's performance over the last year: it has tumbled by 46.48%, worse than the S&P 500's performance. Consistent with the plunge in the stock price, the company's earnings per share are down 57.50% compared to the year-earlier quarter. Looking ahead, the stock's sharp decline over the past year may have been what was needed in order to bring its value into alignment with its fundamentals and others in its industry.
• MELCO CROWN ENTMT LTD has experienced a steep decline in earnings per share in the most recent quarter in comparison to its performance from the same quarter a year ago. Earnings per share have declined over the last year. We anticipate that this should continue in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, MELCO CROWN ENTMT LTD reported lower earnings of $1.10 versus $1.15 in the prior year. For the next year, the market is expecting a contraction of 10.9% in earnings ($0.98 versus $1.10).
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: MPEL Ratings Report