UPDATE: Imperial Capital Upgrades Las Vegas Sands to Outperform, Reiterates $62 PT

In a report published Wednesday, Imperial Capital upgraded its rating on Las Vegas Sands Corp.

from In-Line to Outperform, and reiterated its $62.00 price target. Imperial Capital noted, “Las Vegas Sands reported soft results for 2Q12, as EBITDA decreased 8.5% to $786.1mn from $859.3mn in the prior year quarter. The decline in results was driven by a low table hold in Macau and Las Vegas, increased competition for the VIP segment in Macau and decreased volumes in Singapore. This was the first quarterly decline in three years and we expect results to return to being up yoy in 3Q12. For the latest twelve months (LTM) ended 6/30/12, EBITDA increased 24% to $3.58bn from $2.89bn. The company opened the $4.4bn Cotai Central in April 2012, which should provide a further boost to operating results in the second half. As of 6/30/12, Las Vegas Sands had total debt of $10.3bn and total leverage of 2.9x.” Las Vegas Sands Corp. closed on Tuesday at $42.31.