Short Sellers Increasing Bets Against Casinos (BYD, CZR, LVS, MPEL, MGM, PENN, WYNN, IGT)
August 27, 2012 by Jon C. Ogg
Short sellers have not unilaterally increased their bets against casinos, but there was a rise in the short interest in this sector’s leaders on the August 15 settlement date versus the July 31 settlement date. We tracked the following casino and casino related stocks: Boyd Gaming Corp. (NYSE: BYD), Caesars Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: CZR), Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS), Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL), MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM), Penn National Gaming Inc. (NASDAQ: PENN), Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) and International Game Technology (NYSE: IGT).
Boyd Gaming Corp. (NYSE: BYD) saw a small drop of 1.7% in short interest, down to 10.511 million shares in mid-August versus 10.693 million shares as of the end of July.
Caesars Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: CZR) is still hard to short due to the size of the float, but that short interest did rise by 14.1%. The mid-August short interest was 4.083 million shares short versus 3.579 million shares at the end of July.
Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) saw a rather large jump of 15.4% in its short interest as the mid-August short interest rose to 12.505 million shares versus 10.84 million shares at the end of July.
Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL) saw another decent drop in its short interest as the bets against Macau are lightening up. The mid-August short interest was down 10.6% to 9.063 million shares versus 10.136 million shares at the end of July.
MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) saw a 4% rise in its short interest; mid-August’s short interest was 31.152 million shares versus 29.962 million shares short at the end of July.
Penn National Gaming Inc. (NASDAQ: PENN) saw a drop of 3.7% to 3.976 million shares in mid-August, versus the short interest of 4.13 million shares at the end of July.
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) saw a large gain of 15.8% in the short interest as that short interest grew to 5.341 million shares short in mid-August versus 4.611 million shares at the end of July.
International Game Technology (NYSE: IGT) saw a drop of 6.4% in its short interest as there were 14.74 million shares short in mid-August versus 15.754 million shares short at the end of July.
JON C. OGG
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