Sands Nearly Doubles Size of Buyback Plan to $2 Billion

Posted on: April 23, 2025, 03:59h. 

Last updated on: April 23, 2025, 03:59h.

Todd Shriber @etfgodfather Read More
Expertise: Financial, Gaming Business, Mergers and Acquisitions.
  • Casino operator lifts repurchase program to $2 billion from $1.1 billion
  • Announcement made in conjunction with first-quarter earnings report

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) delivered first-quarter results after the close of US markets today with Macau casino giant also telling investors its significantly expanding a previously authorized share repurchase program.

Liu Changjian, kidnap, Singapore, Marina Bay Sands
Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. Operator Las Vegas Sands is nearly doubling its share buyback plan. (Image: Marina Bay Sands)

Last October, the Marina Bay Sands operator announced a $2 billion share buyback plan and the company made good on the pledge to buy its own stock, doing so to the tune of $900 million since that announcement. On Tuesday, Sands’ board of directors approved nearly doubling that existing buyback scheme back to $2 billion.

The timing and actual number of shares to be repurchased in the future will depend on a variety of factors, including the company’s financial position, earnings, legal requirements, other investment opportunities and market conditions,” according to a statement.

Today’s buyback news from Sands is the third such proclamation since October 2023 and the company has the capital to support those efforts as it concluded the first quarter with $3.04 billion in unrestricted cash on hand, or 14.2% of its market capitalization of $24 billion.

Sands Makes Good on Buyback Talk

Sands’ expansion of its buyback efforts also comes at a time when a variety of gaming companies are turning to share repurchases as a way of returning capital to investors.

Across all industries, some companies prefer buybacks to dividends because the former are more tax-efficient for shareholders than the latter and there’s flexibility. Corporations announcing repurchase programs are not legally bound to buy back any shares, let alone the full amount noted in their press releases and regulatory filings.

However, Sands is making good on promise to buy its own stock. During the first three months of 2025, the Venetian Macau operator said it bought back $450 million worth of its shares, or “approximately 10 million shares at a weighted average price of $44.59.”

That could be a sign management sees value in a stock that’s off 32.54% and one that’s been taken to task by investors amid tariff uncertainty. Sands China is the largest operator in Macau and gaming stocks there are struggling this year as the US and China exchange trade barbs.

Speaking of Macau…

Despite the positive buyback news, shares of Las Vegas Sands traded lower in Wednesday’s after-hours session after the company said its first-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) in Macau was $535 million. That figure was pinched by $10 million on low hold rolling play, said the company.

“In Macao, while market growth has softened in the current environment, our decades-long commitment to making investments that enhance the business and leisure tourism appeal of Macao and support its development as a world center of business and leisure tourism positions us well for future growth,” said CEO Robert Goldstein in the press release.

Things were better in Singapore where the usually dependable Marina Bay Sands notched adjusted property EBITDA of $605 million in the March quarter.