Golden Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:GDEN) Q3 2024 Results Conference Call November 7, 2024 5:00 PM ET

Company Participants

James Adams - Investor Relations
Blake Sartini - Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Charles Protell - President and Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Barry Jonas - Truist Securities
David Bain - B. Riley Securities
Jordan Bender - Citizens JMP
David Katz - Jefferies
Aaron Lee - Macquarie Asset Management
John Dickree - CBRE
Carlo Santarelli - Deutsche Bank

Operator

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Golden Entertainment Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please note that this call is being recorded today. Now I'd like to turn over to James Adams, the company's Vice President of Corporate Finance and Treasurer. Please go ahead, sir.

James Adams

Thank you very much, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. On the call today is Blake Sartini, the company's Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Charles Protell, the company's President and Chief Financial Officer.

On this call, we will make forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated in these statements. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or otherwise.

During the call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures in talking about our performance. You can find the reconciliation of GAAP financial measures in our press release, which is available on our website.

We will start the call with Charles reviewing details of the third quarter results and a business update. Following that, Blake and Charles will take your questions. With that, I will turn the call over to Charles.

Charles Protell

Thanks, James. Starting with our financial results. We generated revenue of $161 million and EBITDA of $34 million in the third quarter. Our reported prior year numbers include the results from our divested Maryland casino and distributed gaming operations.

By comparing the results to our continuing operations, total revenue declined 5% and consolidated EBITDA declined 21% in the third quarter. Our third quarter was challenging for both our casino and tavern segments, with the most significant year-over-year declines in July.

As others have noted, Las Vegas experienced record heat this summer, which contributed to lower visitation at our casino properties and local taverns. In addition, we saw continued weakness at the lower tiers of our database as those consumers have reduced their discretionary spending in the current economic environment. Despite these challenges, we see Q3 as the lowest level of financial performance for our portfolio given October trends and our outlook for the remainder of the year. Reflecting that view, we have increased our share repurchase authorization by $100 million. So we now have over $130 million of buyback capacity to add to the $60 million we repurchased over the last 2 quarters.