{"id":274976,"date":"2023-05-25T17:23:19","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T22:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=274976"},"modified":"2023-05-26T14:47:26","modified_gmt":"2023-05-26T19:47:26","slug":"caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/","title":{"rendered":"Caesars Upgraded as Analyst Sees Decent Risk\/Reward"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ: CZR) earned a tepid upgrade Thursday, as a sell-side analyst sees a more balanced risk\/reward profile emerging with shares of the casino operator.<\/p>\n

\"Caesars
Visitors entering Caesars Palace Las Vegas. An analyst upgraded the stock on Thursday, but he’s not overly bullish on the name. (Image: David Paul Morris\/Bloomberg<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a note to clients Thursday, Susquehanna analyst Joseph Stauff upgraded the gaming equity to \u201cneutral\u201d from \u201cnegative\u201d while boosting his price target to $39 from $27. While that\u2019s a significant increase, the analyst\u2019s new price objective on Caesars implies a modest downside from the stock\u2019s close today at $41.40.<\/p>\n

Stauff\u2019s price target on Caesars is also well below the Wall Street consensus of $71.31. In fact, at $39, his price forecast on the gaming stock is the lowest among his peers. The average analyst rating on the stock is \u201cbuy.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the past 90 days, 12 analysts covering the Harrah\u2019s operator rated the stock \u201cstrong buy\u201d or \u201cbuy,\u201d while two called it the equivalent of a \u201chold.\u201d Another tagged the stock with a \u201cstrong sell\u201d rating. The shares are off 17.25%<\/a> during that time, dragging Caesars to a year-to-date loss of 0.48%.<\/p>\n

Stauff Not Heavily Bearish on Caesars<\/h2>\n

While his upgrade on Caesars isn\u2019t overtly positive, Stauff isn\u2019t heavily bearish on the stock, either.<\/p>\n

“We are upgrading our rating on CZR to Neutral (from Negative) following our assessment of a more balanced risk\/reward at current levels (LV vs. regional\/digital),\u201d wrote the analyst.<\/p>\n

\n

Behind rival MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM), Caesars is the second-largest operator on the Las Vegas Strip. As Stauff notes, about half the stock\u2019s valuation is derived by way of its Sin City portfolio. Citing the second- and third-quarter \u201cseasonal air pocket,\u201d the analyst observed that Caesars could be heading for some tough comparisons due to the Las Vegas events calendar lethargy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Things are expected to perk up later this year with significant assistance from the Las Vegas Grand Prix in November. Some analysts already forecast the event could be a $25 million boon<\/a> to Caesars\u2019 Las Vegas properties. That figure doesn\u2019t include benefits to the operator\u2019s Strip casinos accrued over the race weekend.<\/p>\n

Capital Markets Event(s) Possible<\/h2>\n

Stauff added that it\u2019s possible Caesars \u201cis likely to find favorable capital market events,\u201d which he views as critical to the shares owing to the operator\u2019s high leverage. At the end of the first quarter, the company had $13.2 billion<\/a> in outstanding liabilities compared to $965 million in cash, excluding restricted cash of $258 million.<\/p>\n

Stauff didn\u2019t identify specific capital markets events Caesars could consider. Executives have already said 2023 asset sales are unlikely, and the company previously refinanced and extended debut maturities to significantly reduce interest expenses.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A spin-off of the Caesars Digital<\/a> unit has previously been floated, but that appears unlikely over the near term. That’s because that business is nearing profitability and is scheduled to launch a standalone internet casino mobile application in the third quarter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ: CZR) earned a tepid upgrade Thursday, as a sell-side analyst sees a more balanced risk\/reward profile emerging with shares of the casino operator. In a note to clients Thursday, Susquehanna analyst Joseph Stauff upgraded the gaming equity to \u201cneutral\u201d from \u201cnegative\u201d while boosting his price target to $39 from $27. While that\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":258670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,10,81886],"tags":[81897,81903,23],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCaesars Wins Upgrade, But Analyst Isn't Too Enthusiastic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Caesars stock upgraded by Susquehanna, but the analyst isn't overly bullish.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Caesars Wins Upgrade, But Analyst Isn't Too Enthusiastic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Caesars stock upgraded by Susquehanna, but the analyst isn't overly bullish.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-25T22:23:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-26T19:47:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/CP.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1468\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@etfgodfather\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/\",\"name\":\"Caesars Wins Upgrade, But Analyst Isn't Too Enthusiastic\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/CP.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-25T22:23:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-26T19:47:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\"},\"description\":\"Caesars stock upgraded by Susquehanna, but the analyst isn't overly bullish.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/CP.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/CP.jpg\",\"width\":2200,\"height\":1468,\"caption\":\"Visitors entering Caesars Palace Las Vegas. The operator is acquiring ZeroFlucs to add to its sports betting tech stack. (Image: David Paul Morris\/Bloomberg)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Financial\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/financial\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Caesars Upgraded as Analyst Sees Decent Risk\/Reward\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\",\"name\":\"Todd Shriber\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Todd Shriber\"},\"description\":\"Todd Shriber is a senior news reporter covering gaming financials, casino business, stocks, and mergers and acquisitions for Casino.org. Todd got his start in financial markets as a reporter with Bloomberg News. Later, he became a trader at a Southern California-based long\/short hedge fund, where he specialized in the trading sector and international ETFs leading up to and during the financial crisis. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Currently, Todd analyzes, researches, and writes on ETFs for various web-based publications and financial services firms. Shriber has been featured and quoted in Barron's, CNBC.com, and The Wall Street Journal. His work can also be found on Benzinga, ETF Daily News, ETF Trends, MarketWatch, Fox Business, and Nasdaq.com. He currently resides in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golf and taking his black lab to the dog park. He's also an avid sports fan and likes to wager on college football and the NBA. You can also find him at the three-card poker and roulette table, even though he knows better. Contact Todd at todd.shriber@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/todd-shriber\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/toddshriber\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/etfgodfather\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/todd-shriber\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Caesars Wins Upgrade, But Analyst Isn't Too Enthusiastic","description":"Caesars stock upgraded by Susquehanna, but the analyst isn't overly bullish.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Caesars Wins Upgrade, But Analyst Isn't Too Enthusiastic","og_description":"Caesars stock upgraded by Susquehanna, but the analyst isn't overly bullish.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2023-05-25T22:23:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-05-26T19:47:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2200,"height":1468,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/CP.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Todd Shriber","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@etfgodfather","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Todd Shriber","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/","name":"Caesars Wins Upgrade, But Analyst Isn't Too Enthusiastic","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/CP.jpg","datePublished":"2023-05-25T22:23:19+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-26T19:47:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85"},"description":"Caesars stock upgraded by Susquehanna, but the analyst isn't overly bullish.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/CP.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/CP.jpg","width":2200,"height":1468,"caption":"Visitors entering Caesars Palace Las Vegas. The operator is acquiring ZeroFlucs to add to its sports betting tech stack. (Image: David Paul Morris\/Bloomberg)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-wins-upgrade-but-analyst-isnt-too-enthusiastic\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Financial","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/financial\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Caesars Upgraded as Analyst Sees Decent Risk\/Reward"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85","name":"Todd Shriber","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png","caption":"Todd Shriber"},"description":"Todd Shriber is a senior news reporter covering gaming financials, casino business, stocks, and mergers and acquisitions for Casino.org. Todd got his start in financial markets as a reporter with Bloomberg News. Later, he became a trader at a Southern California-based long\/short hedge fund, where he specialized in the trading sector and international ETFs leading up to and during the financial crisis. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Currently, Todd analyzes, researches, and writes on ETFs for various web-based publications and financial services firms. Shriber has been featured and quoted in Barron's, CNBC.com, and The Wall Street Journal. His work can also be found on Benzinga, ETF Daily News, ETF Trends, MarketWatch, Fox Business, and Nasdaq.com. He currently resides in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golf and taking his black lab to the dog park. He's also an avid sports fan and likes to wager on college football and the NBA. You can also find him at the three-card poker and roulette table, even though he knows better. Contact Todd at todd.shriber@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/todd-shriber","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/toddshriber\/","https:\/\/x.com\/etfgodfather"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/todd-shriber\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274976"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274976"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275108,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274976\/revisions\/275108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}