Boyd Gaming, the casino company whose Las Vegas area properties include the Orleans, the California and Sam’s Town, reported its second-quarter earnings on Thursday.
Company: Boyd Gaming Corp. (NYSE: BYD)
Revenue: $559.9 million, up 3.5 percent from pro forma net revenue in the second quarter of 2014. Last fall, MGM Resorts International received approval to regain its 50 percent stake in the Borgata casino in Atlantic City, of which Boyd owns the other half. That means Boyd has to use some accounting maneuvers to make a fair comparison.
Boyd said in a statement that the pro forma amount from last year reflects Borgata’s performance “on a comparable equity method basis.”
Loss: $6.4 million, compared to net income of $700,000 in the same time period last year. Boyd blamed the poor comparison on pretax losses stemming from its early extinguishment of $31 million in debt.
Loss per share: 6 cents, compared to earnings per share of 1 cent in the second quarter last year.
What it means: CEO Keith Smith said on a conference call that he’s seeing good financial signs throughout his business.
“This was an exceptional quarter for our company, as the positive trends that we’ve been seeing since the second half of last year continued to strengthen across every segment of our business,” Smith said. “Across the company, we see consumers growing more confident and showing a greater willingness to spend.”
Boyd’s Las Vegas casinos did well during the quarter.
Its properties focused on the Las Vegas locals market reported net revenue of $153 million, up 3.2 percent from the second quarter of 2014. Smith noted that nongaming revenue grew for the eighth consecutive quarter in its locals-oriented business.
Gaming revenue also increased in the quarter. Smith said this is “particularly impressive” because Suncoast and Sam’s Town were both negatively impacted by road work, which he said should be complete by Labor Day.
In downtown Las Vegas, where Boyd runs the California, Fremont and Main Street casinos, net revenue rose by $2.9 million from last year to $58.4 million, Boyd said. The company said it was aided by “significant growth” in foot traffic on Fremont Street, as well as ongoing strength in visitation from Hawaiian customers — a key demographic for Boyd.
“2015 has been a great year for downtown and the Fremont Street, as ongoing reinvestments and improvements in the area continue to draw more visitors,” Smith said.
In Atlantic City, Borgata’s net revenue of $191.2 million for the quarter was up 5.1 percent from the same quarter last year.
The company said Borgata saw improved performance across its business, gaming and nongaming alike, and substantially boosted its market share of gross gaming revenue.
Online gaming was responsible for $1.6 million of Borgata’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — the fourth straight quarter of profitability on that side of the business, Boyd said.
Smith said the company is pressing forward with work on an array of new food and beverage offerings, including a new bar at the Fremont that opens next week.
Boyd’s total debt at the end of the quarter was $3.4 billion.