Las Vegas Sands shares drop after analyst note

Las Vegas Sands shares dropped $3.37, or 6.3 percent, to $50.01 in afternoon trading, after hitting a 52-week low of $49.65 earlier in the session. The stock has lost more than 60 percent from its multiyear high of $148.76 in October 2007.

JPMorgan analyst Joseph Greff, who maintained a "Neutral" rating on the stock, cut his earnings estimates for Las Vegas Sands through 2011, citing "lackluster spend per visitor and stunted visitation."

Greff said investors may be understating the "magnitude and duration" of the various challenges facing Las Vegas Strip casino operators. Las Vegas Sands owns The Venetian Resort & Casino and the newly opened Palazzo resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

"The softness on the Strip appears to be hitting both the Palazzo and the Venetian as both properties continue to aggressively make an effort to put heads in beds with attractive, and somewhat harmful to the overall market, room rates into the always-slower summer period," Greff said.

A Las Vegas Sands representative was not immediately available to respond.

Greff said channel checks show that the second half of 2008 will be one of the most challenging periods since 2001. "We expect this summer to be one of the worst on record, with meaningfully discounted room rates and special discounted package deals," he said.

Greff noted that the impact of reduced airline capacity and high gas prices is coming at a particularly bad time for the Strip, as four large resorts are scheduled to open over the next three years.