Station Casinos, the locals-oriented gaming giant whose properties include Red Rock Resort, Green Valley Ranch and Palace Station, reported its third-quarter earnings today.
Company: Station Casinos LLC
Revenue: $323.6 million, up 4.5 percent from the third quarter of 2014.
Earnings: $17.3 million, compared to a loss of $20.8 million in the third quarter last year. Much of the company’s net loss last year came from a $26.5 million loss on discontinued operations. The company shuttered its online gaming business in New Jersey during the third quarter last year.
Station also trimmed operating costs and expenses during this year’s third quarter.
What it means: Station recently said it’s planning for an initial public offering, a move that would make the company publicly traded again after it went private eight years ago. While that’s certainly the most important development for Station right now, Chief Financial Officer Mark Falcone told analysts at the outset of today’s earnings conference call that he would not comment further about the IPO because the company is in a quiet period.
Falcone instead stuck to the quarter’s results: Net revenue at Station’s Las Vegas properties rose 2.8 percent from last year, as the company, which relies heavily on business from Southern Nevada residents, saw continued improvement in the local economy. Falcone said revenue rose on the gaming and nongaming sides of the business.
As he has done previously, Falcone relayed a generally positive view of the local economic situation. He said the outlook for Las Vegas remains “quite favorable,” with metrics such as Strip visitation, convention attendance and employment all showing signs of strength.
Station also operates two tribal casinos, Graton in northern California and Gun Lake in Michigan. Management fees from those properties in the third quarter rose 55.4 percent from last year.
The company’s long-term debt at the end of the quarter was $2.1 billion.
Not one analyst asked Falcone a question after he finished discussing the results on the conference call.
“I guess we were very clear on our third-quarter results,” he said.