Shares of Wynn Resorts jumped 12% on Monday: what happened?

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Written on Oct 31, 2022

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Billionaire Tilman Fertitta now has a 6.1% stake in Wynn Resorts.
Jim Cramer reacts to the news on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street".
Shares of Wynn Resorts are down over 30% versus their YTD high.

Shares of Wynn Resorts Limited (NASDAQ: WYNN) are up more than 10% this morning after Tilman Fertitta revealed to have built a sizable stake in the high-end hotels and casinos operator.

Fertitta bought 6.9 million shares of Wynn Resorts

The billionaire founder of Landry’s Inc now owns 6.1% of the Nasdaq-listed firm. That translates to about 6.9 million shares.

He has filed a “13G” with the Securities & Exchange Commission suggesting it’s a “passive” stake. It’s noteworthy, though, that Fertitta has a history of taking passive stakes that later turn into takeovers, such as in the case of McCormick & Schmick’s and Morton’s.

Nonetheless, it’s unclear at this stage what his intentions are with Wynn Resorts.

Tilman Fertitta also owns the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casinos – so he’s not new to the entertainment space. Wynn Resorts is set to report its Q3 results next week. Consensus is for it to lose $1.2 a share this quarter versus $1.24 last year.

Jim Cramer reacts to the news on CNBC

Wynn Resorts had a rather challenging October as China’s zero-COVID policy weighed on its stock price. Reacting to the news on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street”, Jim Cramer said:

I think Wynn is there for the taking. Assets in America are really great. My Charitable Trust owns a piece of it. We’ve been wrong. Maybe we’ll be made right. Tilman quietly does great things, doesn’t hype himself, happens to be very self-effacing.

According to FactSet, Fertitta is now second only to co-founder Elaine Wynn on the list of this company’s largest shareholders.

Shares of Wynn Resorts are still down over 30% versus their year-to-date high.