Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

David Katz: So, just to follow that up. I mean your — if you were to sort of drift up into the 3s times, it would be with a specific purpose and it sounds like it would be somewhat temporary. But kind of where we’re at, that’s the new target range where we’d like to be?

Josh Hirsberg: Yeah. I think that’s right.

David Katz: Okay. Perfect. Thank you.

Josh Hirsberg: Thanks, Dave.

David Strow: Thank you, David. Our next question comes from Brandt Montour of Barclays. Brandt, please go ahead.

Brandt Montour: Hey, good afternoon, everybody, and thanks for taking my question. So on the improvement that you saw in the retail customer throughout the fourth quarter, I was wondering if you were noticing better traffic or versus sort of spend per visitor coming in the doors. And is it even across the regions in your system? And then, what do you think is driving it?

Josh Hirsberg: I’ll take a big picture shot at it and Keith, you can jump in. I would just say that the comments around kind of the retail segment, which is kind of the lower end of our database and unrated segments, what we’re just — what we’re trying to say is, sequentially, throughout 2023, year-over-year, the decline has narrowed, that gap has continued to narrow to the narrowest point that was achieved in Q4. And then, as we come out into January and early parts of February, that trend has generally been consistent as well. So, we don’t know as much about the unrated segment. So, we can’t tell you if it’s more trips, less trips, more spend, that mix. And that’s what makes up the majority of that retail segment. So, I’m not sure we’re going to be able to give you much more than that at this point. But Keith, I don’t know…

Keith Smith: Yes, that’s about it.

Brandt Montour: Okay. And on the — maybe on the Las Vegas Locals and the rated side of things where you’re also seeing decent strength, it sounds like. I was wondering if you think you’re seeing benefits in that segment from recently renegotiated union contracts and higher wages related to that flowing back into those customers’ wallets and pockets in there and they’re spending more at your properties this year from that?

Keith Smith: I don’t think we can specifically say that we’ve seen that, but many of those team members that work up and down the strip are the beneficiary of those pay package, certainly our customers and a number of our properties. And so, to the extent that they have more money in their pocket, I assume we’re getting some of that, but there’s really no way to tell — no way for us to comment on this at that point — at this point.

Brandt Montour: Okay. Thanks. Nice quarter.

Keith Smith: Sure. Thank you.

David Strow: Thanks, Brandt. Our next question comes from Chad Beynon of Macquarie. Chad, please go ahead.

Chad Beynon: Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to ask about Treasure Chest. I know that the boat is going to stay open, I think, until the land-based property opens. But just curious if we should expect any disruption in the first half of the year. And then, should we still expect a mid-teens return on CapEx in the first year or two? Thanks.

Keith Smith: In terms of kind of the disruption aspect, look, the boat will stay open. It will technically will close, I’m sure, for a few days, three to four days, as we have to move some gear off of the boat on the land-based facility. Kind of the rules and regulations in Louisiana require us to have everything in working order before we’re able to open the door. So, there’ll be three or four days where we’ll be out of business, but no other disruption other than that. So, in terms of our return, Josh?

Josh Hirsberg: Yeah, we’re trying to be very thoughtful and disciplined around the investments we’re pursuing and every one of those is at least contemplated to generate kind of a — we need to get at least a 15% to 20% kind of cash on cash return to meet our overall internal hurdles. And so that’s what we would expect from Treasure Chest. We’ll get kind of half a year of that, hopefully this year, full year in Treasure and next year.

Chad Beynon: Perfect. Thanks. And then just, I guess, kind of a small, maybe more of kind of a personal question, not as much of a financial question. Super Bowl, obviously, being in your market, any approach this year in terms of taking different-sized bets, different environment there? Should it move the needle for Downtown or LVL versus how you historically kind of run that week or weekend for this one? Thanks.

Keith Smith: Yeah, I wouldn’t be thinking about that from a pure sports book standpoint. I think if you’d be thinking about it more holistically, room rates are strong, cash room rates are strong. There are certainly a lot of people in town. So it will be a stronger weekend than normal. I think the week — this week, the week leading up to the Super Bowl is stronger than in prior years because there’s more people in town. But anything in particular or any thoughts in particular about how the book may operate differently, I wouldn’t anticipate that.

Chad Beynon: Okay. Thanks. Appreciate it.

David Strow: Thanks, Chad. Our next question comes from Joe Stauff of Susquehanna. Joe, please go ahead.

Joe Stauff: Thank you. Keith, I think you had mentioned this, but I apologize if I missed it, but can you talk about, say, the behavior of your core customer out of the Gulf states and kind of what you saw in the fourth quarter? Obviously, those were kind of the first states to kind of really soften up. And just wondering kind of where that business is in terms of trends right now.