Shares of Boyd (BYD, Financial), a regional casino gaming company, was another relative outperformer in the quarter, rising 0.6%. The strong relative performance was due to an increase in revenue and margins. Boyd’s accelerated demand growth was due in part to the end of mask mandates across its regional properties. Boyd used strong free cash flow to launch a programmatic stock buyback program of $100 million per quarter. Boyd also reinstituted a dividend above pre-COVID levels. Boyd’s underleveraged financials at just 2.5 times lease-adjusted net leverage gives it the ability to continue to invest in its assets, pursue accretive acquisitions, and return capital to shareholders.
From Ron Baron (Trades, Portfolio)'s Baron Focused Growth Fund first-quarter 2022 letter.
