Live Nation Entertainment: More Than Fun....Maybe Profits, Too

• Price: $9.18
• Earnings Growth: 200%
• Projected Sales Growth: 7%
• Market Cap:$1.7 billion

Danger Zones:
In the red since public in 2006; economic relapse into recession. Live Nation Entertainment LYV operates as a live entertainment company internationally. It's in the promotion of live music events in its owned and/or operated venues, and in rented third-party venues. One of its subsidiaries is Ticketmaster. The company also engages in the operation and management of music venues, and the production of music festivals. In addition, it sells tickets for its events and also for third-party clients, including venues, promoters, sports leagues and teams, and museum and cultural institutions across various live events. The company sells tickets through Websites, ticket outlets, and telephone services. Further, it provides management services to music recording artists; and sells merchandise associated with musical artists at live musical performances and to retailers, as well as directly to consumers through the Internet. In 2010, Live Nation sold 120 million tickets, promoted 21,000 concerts, partnered with 800 sponsors and average 26 million unique monthly users on its e-commerce sites. As of December 31, 2010, it owned, operated, or leased 88 entertainment venues and 104 other facilities, including office leases in North America; and 21 entertainment venues and 65 other facilities internationally. The company was formerly known as Live Nation, Inc. and changed its name to Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. in January 2010. Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is headquartered, naturally, in Beverly Hills, California. What caught my eye and held it was the profits that Live Nation is supposed to generate, for the full year, in 2012. It supposed to lose money again this year (12 cents according to a consensus of 8 analysts but there's a range of - 21 cents to a positive 2 cents....so maybe it will break even or even make a penny or two this year). Next year, the consensus is for 12 cents a share (with a range of -8 cents to a positive 40 cents). Second quarter results showcase the positive turn. LYV made 7 cents this year vs losing 20 cents a share last year in the second period (and it lost 37 cents in the second period of 2009....definitely a positive trend....at least in the second quarter). The reasons: Operations are running smoother and more efficiently. Another: ticket sales are up and sponsorship for events are as well. It's e-commerce efforts are also seeing better results. Tickets are also more expensive for certain events and those price hikes aren't hurting revenues. Further helping the bottom and top lines have been recent acquisitions (like Ticketmaster last year). As they integrate into the LYV's way of doing business, expect better margins as efficiencies take hold. Also, LYV will have greater end-to-end control over the live event production market with these new additions, creating better profits. Third quarter results were just released. Investors weren't thrilled. While net income went higher by 1%, revenues from selling concert tickets fell. Overall revenue was short of analysts' expectations. In North America, concert attendance dipped by 4% to 12.3 million. Overall, concer attendance was down by 6% to 15.6 million. However, LYV sold more tickets than in the third period last year: 34.9 million compared to 32.6 million in 2010's third quarter. Events rose to 5271 compared to 4929 a year ago. For the third quarter, Live Nation earned $51.7 million or 27 cents a share compared to $51 million or 30 cents a share last year in the third. Analysts thought they'd make 38 cents. Total revenues fell nearly 3% to $1.79 billion, below the average estimate of $1.9 billion of analysts. Hence the recent downward blast to the stock. In the last week, it's gone from $9.75 to $8.20 and is now recovering as of this writing. Management is changing strategies as it grows. It's cutting back on the number of shows it produces, especially in North America amphitheaters, and focusing on events feature big-name artists, ensuring higher ticket prices and fuller houses. Experience shows that audiences will pay more for the best names, and ancillary revenues from food/beverage and merchandising, parking, etc. also increase and create better margins. In addition, shows are going where they're profitable, into regions that have been profitable and demand is strongest. Essential Numbers: The Chairman of the board is John Malone. He's one of the brightest business people on the planet. Through his company, Liberty Media, he controls 39.181 million shares. He's had a record of building very successful companies. Aggressive investors will find this one fact reason enough to do more research on LYV. Company Web site: www.livenation.com -Ted Allrich
June 16, 2011 Ted is the Chairman of the Board of B of I Holding and Bank of Internet USA. He is also the founder of The Online Investor (www.theonlineinvestor.com) which has a Free Newsletter for investors.

• Price to sales ratio: .29
• Price to book value: .99
• Operating margin: 1.78%
• Profit margin: - 1.99%
• Return on equity: - 5.17%
• Return on assets: 1.15%
• Revenues for last 12 months: $5.44 billion
• Total cash: $782.57 million
• Cash per share: $4.20
• Total debt: $1.72 billion
• Total debt to equity: 100.1%
• Current ratio: 1.14
• Book value per share: $8.48
• Beta: 2.16
• 52 week change: -16.48%
• Shares Outstanding: 186.14 million
• Float: 121.35 million
• Held by Insiders: 21.83%
• Held by Institutions: 75.2%
• There is no dividend.