Macao Weakness Hurts Las Vegas Sands; Bottom Line Still Beats Expectations

(RTTNews) - Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) revealed earnings for the third quarter that fell from last year, dragged down by a tough operating environment in the high-end gambling business in Macao, China. However, Wall Street experts were expecting a decline, and the bottom-line figure came in above the amount predicted by market analysts.

The casino operator said net income attributable to the company came in at $519.4 million for the third quarter. That was down from $671.7 million in the same period last year.

Earnings per share slipped to $0.65 for the quarter, down from $0.83 in the same three months of 2014.

Analysts had expected the company to earn $0.64 per share for the quarter, according to figures compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Quarterly revenue dropped to $2.89 billion, compared to $3.53 billion in the same period last year. Casino revenues took the biggest hit, dropping to $2.24 billion, compared to last year's mark of $2.9 billion.

Analysts had been looking for revenues of $2.97 billion.

There were declines in room and mall revenues as well, partially offset by slight improvements in revenue at the company's food and beverage unit and at its convention and retail unit.