3. Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: LYV)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 37
Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: LYV) is a California-based entertainment company founded in 2005. It is placed third on our list of 10 best cyclical stocks to buy now. Live Nation stock has offered investors returns exceeding 33% in the past year. The company primarily focuses on the promotion, operation, and management of ticket sales for live entertainment in many countries around the world. It also owns and runs more than 200 entertainment venues globally.
On May 10, investment advisory Jefferies upgraded Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: LYV) stock to Buy with a price target of $96, implying an upside potential of 14%. The share price of the firm jumped more than 5% after the ratings update.
Out of the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Virginia-based firm Akre Capital Management is a leading shareholder in Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: LYV) with 5.4 million shares worth more than $62 million.
In its Q4 2020 investor letter, Oakmark Funds, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: LYV) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:
“In 2006, we initiated our position in Live Nation, the global entertainment company that handles promotion, venue management and ticket sales for live events. Live Nation was spun out of the former Clear Channel Communications in late 2005. In our view, spinoffs often represent attractive opportunities because investors frequently undervalue the new company. We believed this was the case with Live Nation, especially given its initially small market capitalization. As well, when spinoffs are freed from their parents, they typically benefit from intensified management focus and more flexible capital allocation policies. In Live Nation’s case, the spinoff helped make possible the merger with Ticketmaster in 2010, which materially improved the business franchise. Although these factors alone might have made Live Nation a good holding for the Fund, an unexpected technology helped to boost the company’s fortunes: streaming. As the advantages of streaming convinced consumers to reduce or even eliminate their purchases of media, such as CDs and DVDs, artists began to tour more, thereby providing a tailwind to Live Nation’s operations. This accelerated growth in the company’s intrinsic value per share, which in turn generated numerous increases in our sell target for the holding, enabling us to continue to own the shares in the Fund for 14 years. We typically target a three- to five-year holding period for our equity investments, but we love opportunities like Live Nation, which achieve unanticipated intrinsic value growth.”
