5 Best Las Vegas Stocks to Buy Now

2. MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 44 

MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) is a Las Vegas-based hospitality and entertainment firm that runs several destination resorts. The company owns and operates properties in Las Vegas, Massachusetts, Detroit, Mississippi, Maryland, and New Jersey. Some of the famous outlets it manages include the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, and Park MGM. The firm was founded in 1986 and is placed second on our list of 10 best Las Vegas stocks to buy now. It runs almost 30 hotels and resorts in total. 

MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) has been trading over the past few weeks on the back of bullish ratings from analysts and a consistent spike in occupancy rates at its hotels. On April 29, the firm announced that the hotel occupancy rate hovered around 62% in March but had jumped up to 73% in April, driving the post-pandemic recovery for the company. 

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, 44 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $2.1 billion in the firm, up from 41 in the preceding quarter worth $1.2 billion. 

In their Q1 2021 investor letter, Longleaf Partners Fund highlighted a few stocks and MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) is one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“MGM (21%, 1.44%), the casino and online gaming company, also contributed to the Fund’s strong returns. MGM’s Las Vegas properties performed particularly well during the fourth quarter, with October marking the best month since pre-COVID February, positive quarterly EBITDA and strong 2021 bookings. MGM’s online gaming and sportsbetting app, BetMGM, is one of the leaders in US online gaming, with a better market share in the more profitable iGaming than in the higher profile but lower margin sports gaming. MGM has demonstrated high conversion rates of its hotel guests and we believe that, with Barry Diller’s help, they will build a competitive long-term advantage with lower customer acquisition costs. MGM’s Macau subsidiary, MGM China, also appreciated as the Macau market partially reopened. We believe there is significant additional upside for the Macau business over the medium-to-long term.”