Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) posted -20% lower revenues for its first quarter of 2012 compared with revenues in the same period in 2011. Both Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) and MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) managed to stay about even with last year’s take in the first quarter. Most of the increase was due to higher room rates and a slightly higher number of visitors and conventions. Recently public Ceasars Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: CZR) posted an EPS loss of -$2.24.

EPS estimates for Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts are moving higher, while estimates for MGM and Ceasars are falling. The prospects for significant short-term growth are not strong, and in the state with the highest unemployment rate in the country and the second-highest number of mortgage delinquencies, state government may not get any relief from low fee collections on gambling for a while yet.

In March, the state collected about $71.5 million in fees from its gambling businesses, down -10.3% from March of 2011. February’s collections were 69.3% higher than a year ago, however, probably due to convention business. Collections in the current fiscal year are up 2.26%, mostly due to a huge bump in July of 2011.

Paul Ausick

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down more than 76 points to 12,932.01 (-0.59%), the NASDAQ fell more than 11 points (-0.39%) to 2,946.27, and the S&P 500 fell -0.43% or nearly 6 points to 1,363.71.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) maintained as ‘buy’ with a target price of $19 at Argus; Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) maintained ‘outperform’ with a target price of $166 at Credit Suisse; Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) raised to ‘hold’ at Argus; BP plc (NYSE: BP) cut to ‘underweight’ at Barclays; and Synacor Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNC) cut to ‘underperform’ at BofA/ML.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) is down up 5.5% at $65.24 after posting a new 52-week high of $66.18 earlier today (more coverage here); Hecla Mining Co. (NYSE: HL) is up 4.1% at $4.04 (more coverage here); OfficeMax Inc. (NYSE: OMX) is up 10.5% at $4.85; Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE: THC) is up 1.4% at $5.11; The Wendy’s Co. (NASDAQ: WEN) is down -4.3% at $4.66 (more coverage here); Rosetta Stone Inc. (NYSE: RST) is up 18.4% at $12.64; and Pioneer Drilling Co. (NYSE: PDC) is up 5.5% at $8.03.

On Wednesday we are scheduled to get earnings from AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL), Agrium Inc. (NYSE: AGU), CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL), Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. (NYSE: DTG), Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M), Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL), News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM), and priceline.com Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN).

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Fossil Inc. (NASDAQ: FOSL) is down -36.8% at $79.50. The fashion accessories company revealed a weak forecast today. More coverage here.

Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) is down -24.6% at $8.81. The drug maker’s earnings were not as strong as expected. More coverage here.

Avalon Rare Metals Inc. (AMEX: AVL) is down -24% at $1.67 after posting a new 52-week low of $1.58 earlier today. The rare earths miner is delaying a feasibility study. More coverage here.

Stay tuned for Wednesday. Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto and Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser are giving speeches. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 10:00 a.m. – Wholesale trade report
• 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
• 1:00 p.m. – 10-year note auction

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Paul Ausick

AECOM Technology Corporation (NYSE: ACM) Cut to Underperform at BofA/ML.

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNY) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.

Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) Reiterated Buy with $145 target at Argus.

BP plc (NYSE: BP) Cut to Underweight at Barclays.

Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) Raised to Hold from Sell at Argus.

China Petroleum & Chemical (NYSE: SNP), or Sinopec, named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Cognizant Technology Solutions (NASDAQ: CTSH) Raised to Outperform at R.W. Baird.

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) Raised to Buy at Needham.

El Paso Pipeline Partners, LP (NYSE: EPB) Started as Outperform with $38 target at Credit Suisse.

Embraer SA (NYSE: ERJ) Cut to Neutral at Citigroup.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) maintained Buy with $19 target at Argus.

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (NYSE: LPX) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Manulife Financial (NYSE: MFC) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Millennial Media Inc. (NYSE: MM) Started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs; Started as Equal-weight at Morgan Stanley; Started as Equal-weight at Barclays.

Rackspace Hosting, Inc. (NYSE: RAX) maintained Neutral with $57 target at Goldman Sachs.

Synacor Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNC) Cut to Underperform at BofA/ML.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX) Raised to Equal-weight at Morgan Stanley.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) Maintained Outperform with $166 target at Credit Suisse.

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JON C. OGG

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) promises to build new handsets to stimulate demand. (Reuters)

Results in Asia help BMW earnings. (Reuters)

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) balks at a settlement with Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) as they wrangle over which company holds IP to an important chip. (Reuters)

The shale boom causes an increase in the burning of environmentally harmful waste gas. (Reuters)

China, Japan and South Korea will increase investments among themselves in the bonds of the other nations. (Reuters)

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) to create original video programs for its movie service. (Reuters)

Natural gas drilling has dropped, which may push prices higher. (WSJ)

Carlyle cuts the price of its initial public offering. (WSJ)

Hawker Beechcraft may file for Chapter 11. (WSJ)

The judge in a suit against BP (NYSE: BP) says that a trial will continue as the UK settles claims for the Gulf spill. (WSJ)

The head of AT&T (NYSE: T) says the government’s failure to allow a deal with T-Mobile will cost customers money. (WSJ)

India to further cut oil imports from Iran. (WSJ)

Wynn (NASDAQ: WYNN) receives permission to build a new casino in Macau, but many of its competitors have already started to build. (WSJ)

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (NASDAQ: GMCR) shares are hit by poor earnings. (WSJ)

Time Warner’s (NYSE: TWX) CNN losses audience as the viewership of MSNBC and Fox grows. (WSJ)

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) launches several models of its new BlackBerry as the company presses for a turnaround. (WSJ)

EU finance ministers do not reach agreement on new bank capital rules. (WSJ)

Canada’s pipeline companies to shift the flow of oil to the east coast. (WSJ)

Target (NYSE: TGT) will stop selling the Amazon Kindle. (FT)

Shares of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) are running behind the S&P for the third year in a row. (Bloomberg)

One key to Samsung’s successful competition with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) in the smartphone race is products with different screen sizes. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Macau Business reported, “Portuguese-language newspaper Jornal Tribuna de Macau quotes a source close to the project as saying that the deal could be signed before the end of this month depending on the Lands and Public Works Bureau.”

The company had previously announced that it had accepted the terms and conditions of a draft for a 25-year land concession. It does not sound like a done-done deal, but investors should have been expecting this move since that bungled SEC filing. We would always treat such reports of re-reported fake news breaks as a rumor, or even a re-rumor, until a formal press release hits the tape.

Today’s news is good for what is a 4.7% gain to $130.67 in Wynn. While this may prove to be yet one more bit of competition for Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL), Melco Crown shares are up 3.7% at $14.86.

JON C. OGG

Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Caesars Entertainment Corporation (NASDAQ: CZR) Started as Hold at KeyBanc; Started as Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.

E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.

Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) Raised to Outperform at BMO.

Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE) Raised to Buy at UBS.

Patriot Coal Corporation (NYSE: PCX) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) Cut to Underperform at Bernstein.

Trina Solar Limited (NYSE: TSL) Started as Equal weight at Barclays.

United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.

Wynn Resorts Limited (NASDAQ: WYNN) Reiterated Buy and target raised to $140 at Citigroup.

Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. (NYSE: YGE) Started as Equal-weight at Barclays.

Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.

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Ministers in the EU will make a final determination on Greece today (Reuters)

Japan’s huge trade deficit is a sign of weak demand in China (Reuters)

Brent moved above $121 on a shutdown of Iran exports of oil to France and the UK (Reuters)

JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) raised its target for Brent to $118 for 2012 (Reuters)

Samsung will work on OLED displays now that it has spun off its LCD business (Reuters)

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) will buy a majority interest in Yihaodian, to increase its presence in China e-commerce (WSJ)

An IMF document predicts that Greece’s debt to GDP will be 129% by 2020 (WSJ)

Japan posted a $18.5 billion trade deficit in January-a record (WSJ)

S&P affirmed its current Japan rating (WSJ)

China’s economic system has changed as raises for Foxconn employees shows (NYT)

A contribution by the ECB is needed to keep contributions of EU government to previously predicted levels (FT)

TNT investors will try to get UPS (NYSE: UPS) to increase it offer for the company (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACOR) Cut to Neutral at Citigroup.
Arcelor Mittal (NYSE: MT) named as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) Reiterated Buy with $70 target at Argus.
Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) Cut to Buy from Strong Buy at S&P Capital IQ.
Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Cut to Hold at Argus.
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
Eastman Chemical Co. (NYSE: EMN) named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Enterprise Products Partners LP (NYSE: EPD) Reiterated Buy and target set at $61 by Argus.
Leap Wireless International (NASDAQ: LEAP) Cut to Neutral at Collins Stewart.
Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE: PBR), or Petrobras, Cut to Equalweight at Barclays.
Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE: RL) Raised to Buy with $202 target at Argus.
Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE: VLO) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) Reiterated Outperform with $145 target at Credit Suisse.
Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) named as Aggressive Growth stock of the day at Zacks.

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The casino and resort giant sold 1,811,313 shares of its common stock at $9.00 per share to raise gross proceeds of about $16 million before fees and discounts.  Keep in mind that this is the Harrah’s-Caesars deal which was a $15 billion buyout back at the peak of private equity.

$16 million… $15 billion… $28 billion.  Whatever it boils down to…  The figure we were counting on was up to $223.4 million in additional stock, the overwhelming majority of which would be coming from private equity owners. Apollo Global Management, LLC (NYSE: APO) is not even reacting positively to the news with a 0.8% drop down to $14.97 so far today, probably because it is not selling shares.  Paulson & Co. has the right to sell along with affiliated groups of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS).

Even a $500 million offering could have set the pace for up to a decade for all of the backers to exit their positions.

The reason that the company chose this model is likely to keep an initial higher value for a limited share float.  That establishes a fair market value that is probably higher than if the firms all sold shares in a huge offering for the market to absorb.  It allows private equity firms to liquidate in batches and it also gives those private equity firms an ability to peg a true market value to the shares rather than a theoretical value of the shares based solely upon other casino stock values.

Our take: The private equity firms should dismantled the assets into separate companies and sold them off or brought them public as smaller casino properties.

In some manner of speaking, this is far less transparent than exactly the ‘unlocking of Singapore and Macau’ values from Wynn Resorts, Limited (NASDAQ: WYNN) and Las Vegas Sands Corporation (NYSE: LVS).

Does us calling it a sham of an IPO mean that it will flop?  Not at all.  As we are publishing this, the value is up 50% from the $9.00 pricing at $13.70 on almost 3.9 million shares.  With such a low float, who knows how high it could go.  Still, if you are a ‘widows and orphans’ investor you probably better look elsewhere.

At least this IPO did not launch on the Ides of March.

JON C. OGG

Beazer Homes USA, Inc. (NYSE: BZH) Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
BHP Billiton Limited (NYSE: BHP) Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Linear Technology Corporation (NASDAQ: LLTC) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Logitech International SA (NASDAQ: LOGI) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE: MTH) Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Panera Bread Co. (NASDAQ: PNRA) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) Raised to Sector Outperform at CIBC.
Ryland Group Inc. (NYSE: RYL) Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Steel Dynamics Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Stifel Financial Corporation (NYSE: SF) Raised to Buy with $37 target at Goldman Sachs.
Tesla Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) Raised to Buy at Wunderlich.
U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) Cut to Neutral at Citigroup.
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) Raised to Positive at Susquehanna.

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