VICI | Q1 2025

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Links

• Link to Transcript

• Link to 10-Q

Overview

• FFO of $0.58 misses by $0.10.

• Revenue of $984.2M (+3.4% Y/Y) beats by $7.17M.

Takeaways

VICI Properties (VICI) kicked off the year with a clear message: everything they do ties back to delivering consistent, growing dividends—and CEO Ed Pitoniak made that point loud and clear.

He spent a good chunk of the call talking about how often investors overlook dividends, despite the fact that they’ve historically been a huge contributor to total returns. Over the past five years, nearly 40% of VICI’s total return came from dividends, helping it outperform the S&P 500 by more than 30 percentage points.

At current prices, the stock yields over 5%, and Ed called that dividend “defended”—meaning it’s built on a solid foundation that should hold up even in a questionable market.

Whether volatility settles down or not, he believes a well-supported dividend can be a key driver of long-term returns, and that’s what the company is focused on: growing dividend income for shareholders in a sustained and sustainable way.

Getting into some of the financials, AFFO per share for the quarter came in at $0.58, up 4.3% from the same time last year. Management bumped up full-year guidance slightly, now expecting between $2.33 and $2.36 per share, which would be around 3.8% growth at the midpoint.

Margins are still incredibly strong thanks to their efficient triple-net lease model, and general and administrative costs remain low at just 1.5% of revenue.

The company also made smart moves on the debt front. In March, VICI raised $1.3 billion through a bond offering that was six times oversubscribed—clearly a sign that the market likes what they’re doing.

They now have no debt maturing until late 2026 and are sitting on $3.2 billion in liquidity. Their average interest rate is 4.47%, with more than six years to maturity, and their net debt to EBITDA is 5.3x, which is right within their target range.

On the growth side, VICI continues to lean into its relationship-based strategy. In Q1, they partnered with Red Rock Resorts to finance a new tribal gaming development in California—the North Fork Mono Casino and Resort.

VICI is committing up to $510 million in a loan facility for the project, which is expected to open in 2026. This marks VICI’s first gaming deal on tribal land and opens the door to more deals in a space with limited competition and high barriers to entry.

Red Rock has a long history of success in tribal gaming, and this partnership could lead to more opportunities down the road. It’s also worth noting that Red Rock is a major casino developer and operator in Las Vegas as well.

On that note, they’re still very bullish on Las Vegas, pointing to big events like WrestleMania, NHL playoff games, and major concerts at the Sphere as just a few of the many reasons why the city continues to draw crowds. Even if international travel slows down, they believe Vegas could benefit from Americans choosing to vacation closer to home. And while regional gaming may vary by market, VICI expects performance to remain fairly stable overall.

During the Q&A, management acknowledged that market volatility has made operators more cautious, which has slowed down M&A and new development deals. Since operator growth is what drives demand for VICI’s capital, this has naturally affected their deal pipeline.

With that said, they don’t expect volatility to go away anytime soon, and they’re staying proactive—managing their cost of capital, locking in good financing, and keeping plenty of liquidity on hand so they can keep moving forward while others might have to pause.

Overall, their priorities remain the same: building long-term value, staying ready for whatever comes next, and continuing to grow dividend income for shareholders.

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