Shortly after the opening bell, we’ll be buying 125 shares of Wynn Resorts at roughly $102.85 each. Following Thursday’s trade, Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust will own 500 shares of WYNN, increasing its weighting to 1.55% from 1.17%. Wynn Resorts was trading about 3% higher in the premarket in reaction to Wednesday evening’s stronger-than-expected fourth quarter. We’re buying into this early strength because we think it should be trading up even more. The quarter was fantastic . Las Vegas crushed it with a record in sales and profit, surpassing levels from the strong 2022. The F1 race, back in November, provided a big lift as we expected. But in truth, profitability was robust throughout the quarter, leading to records in October, November, and December. This week should be another record one for Vegas with the Super Bowl there on Sunday and the whole month of February should be great thanks to strength in groups and conventions. The Chinese New Year is also this weekend. In Macao, we were pleased to see the recovery get back on track, with momentum building from the third quarter that at first looked disappointing. But we had faith that management would get it together. And, what’s even more impressive is that the region is running at a higher margin than 2019 levels, thanks to a favorable shift to mass gaming and strong cost controls. WYNN 1Y mountain Wynn Resorts 1 year On top of it all, management said it’s considering increasing its regular quarterly dividend of 25 cents per share. The company’s capital positioning continues to improve, as indicated by the step-up in buybacks to about $140 million in the fourth quarter versus $56 million in the third. Stifel raised its price target on Wynn to $135 per share from $133, pointing out that shares currently trade under 10 times their forward EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). This is a discount to its historical multiples, and we think this gap should narrow because the…
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