Casino Stock Winners and Losers: Boyd Gaming

Boyd shares close higher after the casino operator reports a smaller first-quarter loss.

Author:: William Hennelly
Publish date:: May 6, 2009 4:41 PM EDT

Updated from 3:02 p.m. EDT

Shares of

Boyd Gaming

closed higher Wednesday after the Las Vegas-based casino operator reported a smaller loss for the first quarter.

Boyd shares finished up 3.5% to $11.70.

Boyd, part owner of Atlantic City's Borgata, lost $13.8 million, or 16 cents per share, compared with a loss of $32.6 million, or 37 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Boyd took a $28.4 million charge related to a write-off for the Dania Jai-Alai acquisition in January. Without the charge, adjusted profit was 15 cents per share. Analysts were looking for a profit of 8 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters.

Revenue was down 8% to $434.8 million from $471.1 million. Wall Street was expecting $435.1 million.

"The recession continues to impact our business, but we're encouraged by some positive trends that developed during the quarter," said Keith Smith, president and CEO. In our Las Vegas Locals region, we began to see signs of stabilization, while Borgata continued to outperform a severely challenged Atlantic City market.

"Results were especially encouraging in our Midwest and South and Downtown Las Vegas regions, both of which posted gains for the quarter," he said. "These regional performances helped to offset difficult economic climates in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, and demonstrate the value of geographic diversification to our company."

Boyd runs 15 casinos in Nevada, Mississippi, Illinois, Louisiana, Indiana, and New Jersey and is a 50% partner in a joint venture that owns a limited liability company that operates Borgata.

Elsewhere among casino companies,

Las Vegas Sands

(LVS) - Get Report

was down 9.6% to $10.25.

MGM Mirage

(MGM) - Get Report

shares were down 8% to $11.78.

Wynn Resorts

(WYNN) - Get Report

was down 5.7% to $47.12.

Ameristar Casinos

(ASCA)