Although Bally’s Corp. opted out of its fourth-quarter earnings call on 15 minutes’ notice, this didn’t deter Wall Street analysts from commenting.
As Truist Securities analyst Barry Jonas told his readers on March 6, the Bally’s call “was canceled last minute and the release had more limited disclosures than normal.” He said that his earnings model for the company was “under review” and he was awaiting next week’s Securities & Exchange Commission filing.
Jonas saw upsides in the February closing of Bally’s merger with The Queen Casino & Entertainment and in the September 2026 opening of Bally’s Chicago, which recently broke ground. However, he stood by his Hold rating, citing “challenging near-term trends, limited float, and sizable debt burden with unclear visibility for meaningful deleverage.”
The findings of Jefferies Equity Research analyst David Katz in a March 6, investor note were similar. He “remained measured on elevated leverage and forthcoming capital needs.” Like Jonas, he maintained a Hold rating on the stock.
One Katz coup was to have discussions with Bally’s management, eliciting the disclosure that “the company will continue to operate as a public company, albeit controlled by its largest shareholder [Soo Kim]. This is contrary to our initial expectation of BALY being taken private.”
Bally’s digital losses were “a little worse” than Jonas anticipated, $12 million as opposed to his projected $8 million. Beyond that, he mostly recapped the information contained in Bally’s formal earnings release.
Although interactive losses in North America widened from the $10 million recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023, Jonas was hopeful. “Performance,” he wrote, “was negatively impacted by the transition to a new unified platform, which should reverse itself in Q1.”
Katz added that BallyBet sports wagering had gone live in Tennessee, as had its Monopoly Casino app in New Jersey.
In closing, Jonas noted that the company has been looking at the purchase of discounted assets in Australia from financially distressed Star Entertainment. He stuck with a per-share price target of $18.25. Katz hewed to a lower $17-per-share target.
