Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRI) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.30

Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRI) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Saturday, March 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.30 per share on Saturday, March 15th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.30%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th.

Monarch Casino & Resort has a payout ratio of 23.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Monarch Casino & Resort to earn $5.01 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.0%.

Monarch Casino & Resort Price Performance

NASDAQ MCRI traded up $6.76 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $92.57. 230,467 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 93,572. Monarch Casino & Resort has a fifty-two week low of $64.50 and a fifty-two week high of $93.38. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $82.62 and a 200-day moving average price of $79.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.48 and a beta of 1.74.

Monarch Casino & Resort (NASDAQ:MCRI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported $1.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.23. Monarch Casino & Resort had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 16.82%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.03 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Monarch Casino & Resort will post 4.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Monarch Casino & Resort from $79.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Monarch Casino & Resort from $73.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Monarch Casino & Resort from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Truist Financial raised Monarch Casino & Resort from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $82.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Monarch Casino & Resort from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Monarch Casino & Resort presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $87.20.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO John Farahi sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.70, for a total value of $77,700.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 528,436 shares in the company, valued at $41,059,477.20. This represents a 0.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 24.94% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Monarch Casino & Resort Company Profile

Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc engages in the ownership and operation of the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, a hotel and casino facility in Reno, Nevada, and the Monarch Black Hawk Casino in Black Hawk, Colorado. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Reno, NV.