Light & Wonder, Inc. (NASDAQ:LNW) Short Interest Update

Light & Wonder, Inc. (NASDAQ:LNW) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,840,000 shares, a growth of 16.7% from the August 15th total of 3,290,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 819,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.7 days. Approximately 4.4% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LNW has been the topic of several research reports. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Light & Wonder from $115.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Light & Wonder from $76.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Light & Wonder from $98.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Light & Wonder from $107.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Macquarie raised their target price on Light & Wonder from $120.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $108.20.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LNW. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Light & Wonder in the 4th quarter worth about $124,523,000. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. boosted its stake in Light & Wonder by 1.2% in the first quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,315,572 shares of the company’s stock worth $134,307,000 after buying an additional 15,902 shares in the last quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd grew its position in Light & Wonder by 128.0% during the second quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 910,298 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,472,000 after acquiring an additional 511,081 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Light & Wonder by 95.7% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 896,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,601,000 after acquiring an additional 438,443 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Light & Wonder by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 802,922 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,215,000 after acquiring an additional 12,317 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.08% of the company’s stock.

Light & Wonder Price Performance

Shares of LNW traded up $1.21 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $112.03. 486,043 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 688,005. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.90. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $105.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $100.47. The stock has a market cap of $10.10 billion, a PE ratio of 46.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 1.77. Light & Wonder has a 12 month low of $67.71 and a 12 month high of $114.00.

Light & Wonder (NASDAQ:LNW) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.04 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $818.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $798.09 million. Light & Wonder had a net margin of 9.92% and a return on equity of 40.51%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.02 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Light & Wonder will post 4.44 EPS for the current year.

About Light & Wonder

Light & Wonder, Inc operates as a cross-platform games company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Gaming, SciPlay, and iGaming segments. The Gaming segment sells game content and gaming machine; video gaming terminals; video lottery terminals, including conversion kits and spare parts; and table products, including automatic card shufflers, deck checkers, table roulette chip sorters and other land-based table gaming equipment.