Regional casino giant Pinnacle Entertainment enjoyed a strong third quarter, beating analysts’ expectations with 5 million in net revenues.
Revenues were up 2.9 percent year over year, with the increase coming almost entirely from the newly acquired Meadows Racetrack and Casino outside Pittsburgh.
Adjusted EBITDAR was up 3.7 percent to $155.4 million. Same-store property EBITDA came in at $174 million, slightly below consensus, which CEO Anthony Sanfilippo attributed to “severe rain and flooding in Baton Rouge, which reduced visitation to our L’Auberge Baton Rouge business for approximately two weeks in August, as well as by extensive highway interchange work near Ameristar St. Charles”.
The $595 million net revenue figure topped consensus by $1.86 million, while the loss per share of one cent beat consensus by four cents.
“We continue to see improvement in many key areas of focus in our business,” Sanfilippo said. “Table game drop and spend per trip increased at a mid-single digit pace in the 2016 third quarter, particularly within the highest tiers of our data base, where both trips and spend levels increased year over year. We also experienced our seventh consecutive quarter of growth in unrated play, with growth in this segment accelerating to 3 percent in the 2016 third quarter.”
The major highlight of the quarter was the finalization of the Meadows transaction, which the company acquired for $138 million in September.
“The Meadows complements our existing portfolio of businesses and provides additional operational scale and geographic diversification,” said Sanfilippo.
The company also continued its stock repurchase program during the quarter by buying back 1.66 million shares at an average price of $12.05. For the full year, Pinnacle has repurchased $70 million in
