Boyd Gaming (NYSE:BYD) Surprises With Q1 Sales

Gaming and hospitality company Boyd Gaming (NYSE: BYD) reported Q1 CY2025 results topping the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 3.2% year on year to $991.6 million. Its non-GAAP profit of $1.62 per share was 6.3% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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Keith Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer of Boyd Gaming, said: "During the first quarter, we achieved revenue and Adjusted EBITDAR growth on both a Companywide and property-level basis, maintaining property operating margins of 40% – an impressive performance by our Company, considering the impact of severe weather this year across our Midwest & South segment, as well as difficult comparisons to Leap Year. While economic uncertainty has increased in recent weeks, we are encouraged that trends in our business have remained consistent over the first three weeks of April. In all, we are pleased with the overall performance of our business and remain confident in our ability to manage through the current environment, supported by our strong balance sheet and experienced management team."

Company Overview

Run by the Boyd family, Boyd Gaming (NYSE: BYD) is a diversified operator of gaming entertainment properties across the United States, offering casino games, hotel accommodations, and dining.

Casino Operator

Casino operators enjoy limited competition because gambling is a highly regulated industry. These companies can also enjoy healthy margins and profits. Have you ever heard the phrase ‘the house always wins’? Regulation cuts both ways, however, and casinos may face stroke-of-the-pen risk that suddenly limits what they can or can't do and where they can do it. Furthermore, digitization is changing the game, pun intended. Whether it’s online poker or sports betting on your smartphone, innovation is forcing these players to adapt to changing consumer preferences, such as being able to wager anywhere on demand.

Sales Growth

A company’s long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but the best consistently grow over the long haul. Unfortunately, Boyd Gaming’s 4.5% annualized revenue growth over the last five years was sluggish. This fell short of our benchmark for the consumer discretionary sector and is a tough starting point for our analysis.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within consumer discretionary, a stretched historical view may miss a company riding a successful new product or trend. Boyd Gaming’s annualized revenue growth of 4.1% over the last two years aligns with its five-year trend, suggesting its demand was consistently weak. Note that COVID hurt Boyd Gaming’s business in 2020 and part of 2021, and it bounced back in a big way thereafter.

We can better understand the company’s revenue dynamics by analyzing its most important segments, Gaming and Non-Gaming, which are 64.4% and 17.1% of revenue. Over the last two years, Boyd Gaming’s Gaming revenue (casino games) averaged 1.5% year-on-year declines. On the other hand, its Non-Gaming revenue (hotel, food, beverage) averaged 11.6% growth.

This quarter, Boyd Gaming reported modest year-on-year revenue growth of 3.2% but beat Wall Street’s estimates by 2.1%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to remain flat over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last two years. This projection doesn't excite us and suggests its products and services will see some demand headwinds.

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Operating Margin

Boyd Gaming’s operating margin might fluctuated slightly over the last 12 months but has generally stayed the same, averaging 22.7% over the last two years. This profitability was elite for a consumer discretionary business thanks to its efficient cost structure and economies of scale.

This quarter, Boyd Gaming generated an operating profit margin of 20.2%, down 2.7 percentage points year on year. This contraction shows it was less efficient because its expenses grew faster than its revenue.

Earnings Per Share

We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) for the same reason as long-term revenue growth. Compared to revenue, however, EPS highlights whether a company’s growth is profitable.

Boyd Gaming’s EPS grew at an astounding 37.9% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its 4.5% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became more profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.

In Q1, Boyd Gaming reported EPS at $1.62, up from $1.51 in the same quarter last year. This print beat analysts’ estimates by 6.3%. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Boyd Gaming’s full-year EPS of $6.68 to shrink by 3.5%.

Key Takeaways from Boyd Gaming’s Q1 Results

It was encouraging to see Boyd Gaming beat analysts’ revenue expectations this quarter. We were also happy its EPS and EBITDA outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this quarter had some key positives. The stock remained flat at $66.04 immediately after reporting.

Should you buy the stock or not? What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free.