Is Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Stock A Buy or Sell?

Before we spend countless hours researching a company, we like to analyze what insiders, hedge funds and billionaire investors think of the stock first. This is a necessary first step in our investment process because our research has shown that the elite investors’ consensus returns have been exceptional. In the following paragraphs, we find out what the billionaire investors and hedge funds think of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS).

Is LVS stock a buy or sell? Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund interest recently. Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) was in 63 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of December. The all time high for this statistic is 47. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that LVS isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 rankings).

So, why do we pay attention to hedge fund sentiment before making any investment decisions? Our research has shown that hedge funds’ small-cap stock picks managed to beat the market by double digits annually between 1999 and 2016, but the margin of outperformance has been declining in recent years. Nevertheless, we were still able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 124 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here).

Gabriel Plotkin of Melvin Capital Management

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. Recently Oregon became the first state to legalize psychedelic mushrooms which are shown to have promising results in treating depression, addiction, and PTSD in early stage academic studies. So, we are checking out this psychedelic drug stock idea right now. We go through lists like the 10 best biotech stocks to invest in to pick the next stock that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage (or at the end of this article). Now we’re going to view the latest hedge fund action regarding Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS).

Do Hedge Funds Think LVS Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At the end of December, a total of 63 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 34% from the third quarter of 2020. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards LVS over the last 22 quarters. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

More specifically, Melvin Capital Management was the largest shareholder of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS), with a stake worth $629.4 million reported as of the end of December. Trailing Melvin Capital Management was D1 Capital Partners, which amassed a stake valued at $318.3 million. Palestra Capital Management, Point72 Asset Management, and Citadel Investment Group were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Cumberland Associates / Springowl Associates allocated the biggest weight to Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS), around 18.08% of its 13F portfolio. 1060 Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 9.42 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to LVS.

Consequently, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Palestra Capital Management, managed by Andrew Immerman and Jeremy Schiffman, assembled the largest position in Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS). Palestra Capital Management had $193.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management also initiated a $123.7 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new LVS positions are Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management, Robert Pitts’s Steadfast Capital Management, and Amit Nitin Doshi’s Harbor Spring Capital.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) but similarly valued. These stocks are Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU), DoorDash, Inc. (NYSE:DASH), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE:COF), Roper Technologies Inc. (NYSE:ROP), Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. (NASDAQ:KDP), The Blackstone Group Inc. (NYSE:BX), and NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI). This group of stocks’ market caps match LVS’s market cap.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 47.6 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2007 million. That figure was $3066 million in LVS’s case. NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. (NASDAQ:KDP) is the least popular one with only 29 bullish hedge fund positions. Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for LVS is 85.9. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 81.2% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 26 percentage points. These stocks gained 5.3% in 2021 through March 19th and still beat the market by 0.8 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on LVS as the stock returned 6.9% since the end of Q4 (through 3/19) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.