We recently published a list of 11 Best Quality Penny Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ:MLCO) stands against other best quality penny stocks.

The quality factor in stocks refers to companies with strong fundamentals, financial stability, and reliable performance, with an aim for resilience rather than speculative growth. Quality stocks can be proxied through several metrics – as Hsu, Kalesnik, and Kose put it in their 2019 paper:

“Quality as an investment factor is systematically associated with persistent profitability, low leverage, and stable earnings growth.”

Besides that, these stocks often exhibit high revenue growth, good management practices, and a sustainable competitive advantage reflected through double-digit return on invested capital. The attractiveness of quality stocks consists in their lower volatility, defense capabilities, and ability to outperform the broad market during recessions or periods of pronounced uncertainty.

In the context of penny stocks, the quality factor becomes elusive, as most penny stocks inherently lack stable fundamentals, carry higher volatility, and often possess weaker balance sheets. Nevertheless, it is still positive to find quality penny stocks, which results in a powerful blend of high growth and high return features with resilience and consistency of growth. The best quality penny stocks are likely to deliver robust high growth even during market downturns and outperform the benchmark by a wide margin. The positive effect of the quality factor on stock returns has been proven by leading researchers, such as the Asness, Frazzini, and Pedersen (2019) paper. Here’s an excerpt from the paper:

“High-quality stocks have higher risk-adjusted returns than low-quality stocks… A quality-minus-junk (QMJ) factor earns significant risk-adjusted returns in U.S. and global stocks.”

READ ALSO: 11 Best Fundamentally Strong Penny Stocks to Buy Now.

The primary takeaway for readers is that incorporating quality penny stocks in a portfolio can boost the overall return of the portfolio per unit of risk, which has always been the ultimate goal of many successful investors. However, the quality factor tends to perform better in specific market periods, and we believe the US stock market has entered such a period for the following reasons. First, smart money tends to flock into quality stocks with stable profitability, cash flows, and strong revenue growth in periods of uncertainty. The US stock market is currently shaken by the Trump tariffs. The uncertainty persists as of April 1,  as evidenced by the VIX volatility index being at a value of 31, more than 50% above the daily 200 moving average.

Second, there are reasons to expect a significant deceleration in GDP and earnings growth in the first half of 2025, as the cuts in public spending as well as the tariffs uncertainty are a huge headwind for private spending and Capex – CEOs tend to be reluctant to invest heavily into the business when they lack visibility for the near-term. Consequently, the odds are that Q1 2025 earnings, once reported, will show a sequential slowdown in growth. FactSet Insight showed that the Q2 2025 earnings growth for the US stock market is expected at +7.2% YoY, significantly below the +18.2% actual for the previous 4Q 2024. Keep in mind that there’s still potential for actual growth to come even lower than the +7.2% estimate.

Last but not least, the S&P index remains below its daily 200 moving average, an area where nothing good tends to happen. The last time the market broke below the 200 moving average was in January 2022, which resulted in a 12-month-long bear market with an absolute drawdown of -28%, much above the current -13%. This means that the current market correction may not be over yet; if the broad market stays in red territory, it is inevitable that money will start flowing increasingly toward high-quality stocks and penny stocks, boosting their valuations. All in all, the aforementioned findings support the thesis that the quality factor will be favored over the following months, which means we might be at an opportune time to buy the best quality penny stocks.

A bustling casino table surrounded by players, highlighting the gaming entertainment offered by the resort.

Our Methodology

We used a stock screener to identify companies with a share price under $5.00 that have at least 20% revenue CAGR in the last 5 years and a positive net profit margin. Then we compared the list with our proprietary database of hedge funds’ ownership and included in the article the top 11 stocks with the largest number of hedge funds that own the stock as of Q4 2024. The stocks are ranked in ascending order.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ:MLCO)

Revenue CAGR in the last 5 years: 23.24%

Net profit margin: 0.94%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 27

​​​Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ:MLCO) is a Hong Kong-based developer, owner, and operator of integrated resort facilities with a focus on casino, gaming, and entertainment. The company is known for operating major properties across Europe and Asia, with the most notorious ones including City of Dreams and Studio City in Macau, City of Dreams Manila in the Philippines, and City of Dreams Mediterranean in Cyprus. A significant competitive advantage of the company is the exclusive casino license in Cyprus, which it holds for 15 years. MLCO ranked 1^st on our recent list of 12 Best Hotel Stocks To Buy According to Analysts.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ:MLCO) demonstrated strong momentum in late 2024 and early 2025, with market share growing month-to-month in Q4 2024, reaching approximately 15.6% in December, while property visitation exceeded pre-pandemic levels for the first time since border reopening. The company had a successful Chinese New Year period, with total gross gaming revenue outpacing both 2024 and 2019 levels and property visitation up 17% compared to the previous year. January 2025 was particularly strong, being one of the best January performances in recent years, with continued momentum into February showing stronger performance than the prior year across both weekdays and weekends.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ:MLCO) is actively pursuing an asset-light strategy, as evidenced by the announcement to explore strategic alternatives for the City of Dreams Manila. This strategic shift aims to enhance financial flexibility, strengthen the balance sheet, and support long-term growth initiatives. On the operational front, MLCO maintains a strong liquidity position with $3.3 billion in available liquidity, including consolidated cash on hand of approximately $1.3 billion. The company is also implementing cost optimization measures, with expectations to reduce daily operating expenses from $3.2 million in Q4 2024 to approximately $3.0 million by the end of Q2 2025. With that being said, MLCO has demonstrated exceptional operational execution and is investing in its expansion. With at least 27 hedge funds owning the stock, we included MLCO in 4^th place on our list of the best quality penny stocks to buy according to hedge funds.

Overall, MLCO ranks 4th on our list of best quality penny stocks to buy according to hedge funds. While we acknowledge the potential of MLCO to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MLCO but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.