MGM Resorts International’s first quarter 2025 revenue dipped slightly – down 2% year-over-year to $4.3 billion – a decrease that could be explained by the boost the Super Bowl gave the company, and its nine Strip casinos, in the first quarter of 2024 when the game was played in Las Vegas.
“We already have, just through April, 440,000 room nights that have been booked,” said Jonathan Halkyard, MGM Resorts’ chief financial officer. “You do the math. That’s over 20,000 rooms a night that are being booked through the Marriott channel. And these are customers that we think are very accretive compared to the customers that they’ve replaced.”
MGM Resorts and Marriott International in 2023 announced a 20-year agreement to create a loyalty program covering some of the casino company’s resorts in a partnership with a platform that has more than 180 million members.
In addition, the company more than doubled down on its year-to-date share repurchases, announcing $2 billion more. “We repurchased nearly 15 million shares for about $494 million in the first quarter, and we purchased another 8 million shares in the second quarter to date, for $215 million as we end April,” Halkyard said. “And we’ve received Board approval for the ability to repurchase another $2 billion of shares.”
Adjusted EBITDA was $637 million in 1Q25 compared to $673 million in the same period during 2024. Net income attributable to MGM Resorts was $149 million in the current quarter compared to $217 million in the prior year ‘s quarter, due primarily to the decrease in net revenues.
There are a few concerns, but MGM Resorts Bill Hornbuckle said that there’s not anything that overly concerns the company. Specifically, Wall Street analysts asked whether or not President Trump’s proposed tariffs would delay any CapEx or construction products.
When he was asked about a competitor delaying construction products – the company wasn’t named, but Churchill Downs last week announced a couple of projects were delayed – Hornbuckle responded that remodeling, notably at the Aria and Cosmopolitan, should not be affected.
“Those are biggest things that I think could be tariff-related we’ll have to pay close attention to, but unless something happens more macro with the environment and our balance sheet, we wouldn’t change our thinking around those significant remodels,” Hornbuckle said.
Other projects, specifically in Japan and possibly in New York, will not be materially threatened by any proposed tariffs.
Specifically for New York, where there are three downstate casino licenses pending before state authorities to be selected from among roughly a dozen bidders, Hornbuckle said MGM Resorts has not changed its plans.
“I think we’re comfortable with the city. We have our environmental impact study done,” Hornbuckle said. “And so, we really haven’t changed the plan. It is of interest – we watch where the others (operators) are going, potentially where they’ll go. It’s our anticipation there will still be three licenses. We’ll take a unique position. I think we always have, and so all things being relative, we’ll see what happens. You never know. It is New York.”
International visitation is also an issue the MGM Resorts will pay attention to. But so far, there has been very little decrease in visitors from other nations.
“On the higher end, it’s not really having any impact at all,” said Chief Operating Officer Cory Sanders. “Actually, we just had an amazing event in April with our higher end component of it. The leisure type business, the Canadian business, that is down, but we’ve been able to make it up in our Marriott blocks and our casino blocks.”
