This is Why Casino Stocks Have Been Exploding

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Shares of MGM Resorts, Las Vegas Sands, as well as Wynn Resorts sailed higher this Thursday after Macau reported better than expected figures for the month of May.

Macau is the only legal place to gamble in China and it’s become a mecca for casinos. According to Macau authorities, the area saw gross gaming revenue climb 24% compared to the prior year. Analysts had only been expecting a 15-20% increase.

Las Vegas Sands is now up 16% YTD, while Wynn is up 54% and MGM is up 12%. Wynn Resorts has even become the third best performing stock trading on the S&P 500 in 2017.

According to Piper Jaffray analyst Craig Johnson, there could be more still in store. He wrote, “We do not see any sign of a trend change at this juncture.”

“I still think there’s 20 percent more upside, so I’d still be buying these names at this point,” Johnson remarked on Thursday on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.” “The charts still look good,” he continued.

Another analyst from Stifel Nicolaus, Steven Wiecyznski wrote on Thursday in a note to clients, “Although we sense a resurgence in VIP play continues to support reported marketwide statistics, we believe the mass market growth story continues to unfold according to plan as well, as supported by marketwide visitation and lodging metric data.”

Boris Schlossberg of BK Asset Management noted on Thursday’s “Power Lunch,” If they can make Macau a destination, like it looks like it’s going to be, that could really [help it to] weather a lot of economic flaws in China. think that’s really a strong story there.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS), MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM), nor Wynn Resorts, Limited NASDAQ: WYNN) and have not been compensated for this article.