Bank Of America Previews Gaming, Wynn Earnings

In a report published Monday, Bank of America analyst Shaun Kelley stated that Macau's total visitation in March was down 13.5 percent, marking the first double-digit decline since 2009. Kelley said Macau's declining traffic trend was attributed to a 17.6 percent decline in visitors from mainland China as the group represents 64 percent of total visitation while Mainland Chinese Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) travelers were down 9.7 percent. In addition, Hong Kong visitors, the second-largest component at 22 percent of total visitors, decreased by just 2.4 percent year-over-year. April's early data wasn't very encouraging as gaming operators for the week ending April 26 saw a market average daily revenue (ADR) of MOP664 million (approximately $83.17 million), marking 3.5 percent decrease from the prior week and a 32.3 percent drop from the same week a year ago. Kelley added that runrating April's average ADR of MOP640 million implies second quarter gross gaming revenue could turn out to have fallen 36 percent, worse than his prior estimates of a 31 percent decline.

is scheduled to report its first quarter results Tuesday after market close. The analyst is projecting the company to generate a total property EBITDA OF $341 million, which is 7 percent below the $366 million consensus. In Macau, Kelley is expecting Wynn to report EBITDA of $232 million, short of the $246 million consensus estimate. Under a "worst-case" scenario, Wynn's EBITDA could approach $215 million if it sees similar margin deceleration as

in its first quarter.