Yahoo Finance Live Nation (NYSE:LYV) Posts Q2 Sales In Line With Estimates
Live events and entertainment company Live Nation (NYSE:LYV) reported results in line with analysts' expectations in Q2 CY2024, with revenue up 7% year on year to $6.02 billion. It made a GAAP profit of $1.03 per share, improving from its profit of $1.02 per share in the same quarter last year.
Is now the time to buy Live Nation? Find out in our full research report.
Live Nation (LYV) Q2 CY2024 Highlights:
Revenue: $6.02 billion vs analyst estimates of $6.01 billion (small beat)
EPS: $1.03 vs analyst expectations of $1.07 (4.1% miss)
Gross Margin (GAAP): 26.8%, up from 26% in the same quarter last year
Free Cash Flow of $598.8 million, up from $71.47 million in the previous quarter
Events: 14,678 at quarter end
Market Capitalization: $21.93 billion
Owner of Ticketmaster and operator of music festival EDC, Live Nation (NYSE:LYV) is a company specializing in live event promotion, venue management, and ticketing services for concerts and shows.
Leisure Facilities
Leisure facilities companies often sell experiences rather than tangible products, and in the last decade-plus, consumers have slowly shifted their spending from "things" to "experiences". Leisure facilities seek to benefit but must innovate to do so because of the industry's high competition and capital intensity.
Sales Growth
A company’s long-term performance can indicate its business quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones tend to grow for years. Over the last five years, Live Nation grew its sales at a decent 16% compounded annual growth rate. This shows it was successful in expanding, a useful starting point for our analysis.
We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within consumer discretionary, a stretched historical view may miss a company riding a successful new product or emerging trend. Live Nation's annualized revenue growth of 43% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, suggesting its demand recently accelerated. Note that COVID hurt Live Nation's business in 2020 and part of 2021, and it bounced back in a big way thereafter.
This quarter, Live Nation grew its revenue by 7% year on year, and its $6.02 billion of revenue was in line with Wall Street's estimates. Looking ahead, Wall Street expects sales to grow 8.5% over the next 12 months, an acceleration from this quarter.
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Cash Is King
If you've followed StockStory for a while, you know we emphasize free cash flow. Why, you ask? We believe that in the end, cash is king, and you can't use accounting profits to pay the bills.
Live Nation has shown weak cash profitability over the last two years, giving the company limited opportunities to return capital to shareholders. Its free cash flow margin averaged 6.6%, subpar for a consumer discretionary business.
Live Nation's free cash flow clocked in at $598.8 million in Q2, equivalent to a 9.9% margin. This quarter's cash profitability was in line with the comparable period last year and above its two-year average.
Key Takeaways from Live Nation's Q2 Results
We struggled to find many strong positives in these results as its revenue only beat slightly and its EPS missed analysts' expectations. Overall, this quarter could have been better. The stock traded down 3.2% to $91.64 immediately after reporting.
Live Nation may have had a tough quarter, but does that actually create an opportunity to invest right now? When making that decision, it's important to consider its valuation, business qualities, as well as what has happened in the latest quarter. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it's free.
