Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRI) Short Interest Down 40.4% in March

Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRI) was the target of a large drop in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 170,200 shares, a drop of 40.4% from the March 15th total of 285,400 shares. Currently, 1.3% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 113,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.5 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Monarch Casino & Resort

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Monarch Casino & Resort by 524.9% in the 1st quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 20,140 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,566,000 after purchasing an additional 16,917 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in Monarch Casino & Resort by 58.3% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 7,642 shares of the company’s stock worth $594,000 after purchasing an additional 2,813 shares in the last quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Monarch Casino & Resort by 42.6% in the first quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 22,747 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,769,000 after acquiring an additional 6,794 shares in the last quarter. Heritage Family Offices LLP lifted its position in shares of Monarch Casino & Resort by 9.3% in the 1st quarter. Heritage Family Offices LLP now owns 3,271 shares of the company’s stock worth $254,000 after purchasing an additional 278 shares during the period. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers boosted its position in Monarch Casino & Resort by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 29,525 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,296,000 after acquiring an additional 322 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Monarch Casino & Resort from $79.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Monarch Casino & Resort from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. StockNews.com cut shares of Monarch Casino & Resort from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Truist Financial upgraded shares of Monarch Casino & Resort from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $82.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Monarch Casino & Resort from $73.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. One investment 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. According to MarketBeat, Monarch Casino & Resort has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $87.20.

Monarch Casino & Resort Stock Up 1.1 %

MCRI stock traded up $0.84 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $75.63. The company had a trading volume of 105,029 shares, compared to its average volume of 118,838. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $83.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $82.04. Monarch Casino & Resort has a 12-month low of $64.50 and a 12-month high of $96.11. The company has a market capitalization of $1.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.28 and a beta of 1.57.

Monarch Casino & Resort (NASDAQ:MCRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported $1.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.23. Monarch Casino & Resort had a return on equity of 18.27% and a net margin of 18.01%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.03 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Monarch Casino & Resort will post 5.13 EPS for the current year.

About Monarch Casino & Resort

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.