Las Vegas Sands Beats on Revenue, Matches Expectations on EPS (LVS)

Las Vegas Sands Beats on Revenue, Matches Expectations on EPS

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS ) reported earnings on Feb. 1. Here are the numbers you need to know.

The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended Dec. 31 (Q4), Las Vegas Sands beat expectations on revenues and met expectations on earnings per share.

Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue expanded significantly and GAAP earnings per share expanded.

Gross margins dropped, operating margins improved, and net margins grew.

Revenue details
Las Vegas Sands tallied revenue of $2.54 billion. The 15 analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ predicted revenue of $2.47 billion. Sales were 26% higher than the prior-year quarter's $2.02 billion.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions.

EPS details
Non-GAAP EPS came in at $0.57. The 19 earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ forecast $0.57 per share on the same basis. GAAP EPS of $0.39 for Q4 were 15% higher than the prior-year quarter's $0.34 per share.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Figures may be non-GAAP to maintain comparability with estimates.

Margin details
For the quarter, gross margin was 37.4%, 960 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 26.1%, 190 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 17.1%, 90 basis points better than the prior-year quarter.

Looking ahead
Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $2.47 billion. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.56.

Next year's average estimate for revenue is $11.18 billion. The average EPS estimate is $2.56.

Investor sentiment
The stock has a two-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 1,755 members out of 2,081 rating the stock outperform, and 326 members rating it underperform. Among 506 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 434 give Las Vegas Sands a green thumbs-up, and 72 give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Las Vegas Sands is outperform, with an average price target of $59.82.

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Seth Jayson had no position in any company mentioned here at the time of publication. You can view his stock holdings here. He is co-advisor of Motley Fool Hidden Gems, which provides new small-cap ideas every month, backed by a real-money portfolio. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Report this Comment On February 02, 2012, at 10:34 AM, cp757 wrote:

Good factual reporting of the numbers Seth.You could have done a deeper story but that is for another day. I do have a problem with the Investor sentiment when you say:
The stock has a two-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 1,755 members out of 2,081 rating the stock outperform, and 326 members rating it under perform. Among 506 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 434 give Las Vegas Sands a green thumbs-up, and 72 give it a red thumbs-down
I have read that David Gardner wants to "push for more accountability in financial writing." What I want to know is David accountable for the way things are done at The Motley Fool? Specifically the Community Rating System. The flaw I see is that members that went in two, three,four years ago and started a portfolio and then left and never changed a position in two to four years are still in the ratings and if they where "active members" then they would have been changing there portfolios and making a more relevant rating system. My question for David is, have you addressed this with the programmers that set up the rating system? Do you know what the members think about the rating system? Would you change it if it was skewing the data?
JPM,WFC, BAC ,AAPL all have a three star rating all with different outperform , under perform percentages WAC is 90/10 JPM 85/15 BAC 86/14 and AAPL 92/8 so what do you need for a five star?Well WOOF is a five star with 1.45 billion in revenue so its not revenue .If you look at outperform under perform thats 95/5 close to AAPL figures but they must have a great future and I should invest in them because they are a five star company.Could the number of people that posted have anything to do with the figures since WOOF has 244 community members and AAPL has 27,304 . Your idea in July 1993 to have investors research a stock and rate it has an appeal because we don't trust analysts .We think they are trying to trick us and we want some one that is not a snake oil salesman to trust. I only wish David Gardner would address this issue because I find it to be a flaw in THE MOTLEY FOOL.