In preparation for ASCA's Q4 earnings release tomorrow, we’ve put together the recent pertinent forward looking company commentary.
AMERISTAR CASINOS INCREASES CASH DIVIDEND BY 19% (01/30/2012)
- “ASCA announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.125 per share, payable March 15, 2012 to stockholders of record as of Feb. 29, 2012. This represents an annual rate of $0.50 per share, a 19% increase over the annual dividend for 2011.”
ASCA ANNOUNCES CLOSING OF PURCHASE OF CASINO RESORT DEVELOPMENT SITE IN SPRINGFIELD, MASS (01/25/2012)
- “Ameristar purchased the site at Page Blvd. and Interstate Highway 291 for $16 million from an affiliate of the O'Connell Development Group Inc. Westinghouse.”
- “Ameristar's development plans are preliminary but are expected to include a state-of-the-art casino continuously updated with the newest and most popular slot machines (a hallmark of the Ameristar brand) and a variety of table games, a luxury hotel, a diverse offering of dining venues, retail outlets, entertainment and meeting space and structured parking.”
YOUTUBE FROM Q3 2011 CONFERENCE CALL
- “As I mentioned, we're obviously controlling our costs well across our properties, particularly in promotional spending. And we're confident we can achieve a high flow through rate going forward.”
- “We're allowed to have up to seven times on a total net leverage basis. And the senior leverage ratio is now below three times at 2.92 for Q3. The allowable rate at this present time would be 4.5 times.”
- “Q4 2011 estimates for non-cash stock-based compensation expense is expected to between $10 million and $11 million in the fourth quarter. For the year, we anticipate we'll hit $22 million to $23 million. Our blended federal and state tax rate is projected to be between 41% and 43% for the fourth quarter and for the year. Capital spending for the remainder of 2011 is expected to be in the range of $19 million to $24 million, which we anticipate will be predominantly maintenance CapEx. Interest expense in Q4 is expected to be near $27.4 million. Non-cash interest is expected to between $1.1 million and $1.6 million for Q4.”
- “Based on our operational cash flow needs that occur every year in the fourth quarter, we'll probably only be making the one mandatory principal repayment at the end of the quarter, which will bring our full year debt repayment to somewhere around $184 million to $187 million, which obviously has been substantial. Use of our free cash flow was concentrated on retiring debt this year to get our debt multiple down, to put the company in a position to pursue other strategic opportunities. And the board has approved the fourth quarter dividend that will be paid in December.”
- “Basically we've seen a significant decline in professional fees through the year and as we've wrapped up a few things. And there were some costs related to the share repurchase and to the refinancing and to some changes in personnel that occurred in the first six months of the year that are obviously not going to be reoccurring going forward.”
- “We haven't made anything public as how we believe this will impact us or not impact us, other than to suggest people take a look at what South County's Pinnacle property impact had on our St. Charles property. They're literally the same distance from each other, 24, 25 miles. And that should give you a pretty good indication of what could happen in Kansas City once the racetrack casino opens.”