Casino Stock Winners and Losers: MGM Mirage
Updated from 11:07 a.m. EDT
MGM Mirage
(MGM) - Get MGM Resorts International Report
shares surged Monday on an analyst upgrade and news that billionaire majority stake holder Kirk Kerkorian's investment vehicle bought 14.3 million shares.
MGM shares closed up 14% to $8.74.
Before the purchase at $7 a share, Kekorian's Tracinda Corp. had held a 53.8% stake in the casino operator. That stake is now about 42%, reduced by a recent stock offering that raised $1 billion.
Joseph Greff of JPMorgan upgraded the stock to overweight from neutral and raised his year-end price target to $11 from $9. Greff cited MGM's improved liquidity following last week's
and the "view that sell-side/buy-side investor expectations for MGM's same-store LV Strip portfolio for '09-'10 are really low and there is an almost uniformly negative expectation for
."
Elsewhere among casino stocks, shares of
Las Vegas Sands
(LVS) - Get Las Vegas Sands Corp. Report
closed higher by 11.6% to $10.30.
Wynn Entertainment
TheStreet Recommends
(WYNN) - Get Wynn Resorts, Limited Report
was up 9.2% to $41.40.
Boyd Gaming
(BYD) - Get Boyd Gaming Corporation Report
finished up 12.6% to $10.67.
Penn National Gaming
(PENN) - Get Penn National Gaming, Inc. Report
was up 5.6% to $32.07.
Melco Crown Entertainment
(MPEL)
was up 6.4% to $5.81.
Ameristar Casinos
(ASCA)
finished up 6.9% to $20.06.
Isle of Capri Casinos
(ISLE)
was up 7.3% to $12.73.
