LYV Takes A Dip

Live Nation stock took an immediate hit after investors had the night to mull over the company’s fourth-quarter figures posted after market close the previous day.

LYV stock dropped nearly 5 percent from $10.50 per share to $10, declining to $9.46 at one point, during a recent bull market on Wall Street that saw the DOW Jones Industrial Average close Feb. 24 at its highest level since June 2008.

The company noted it had narrowed its losses considerably – the net loss for calendar year 2011 was $83 million whereas it took a $238 million hit in 2010.

Meanwhile it touted better e-commerce, a great upcoming year in tours, 10 new festivals and – somehow – a 102 percent Ticketmaster account renewal rate. It was a definite improvement, but over the last few months the stock’s price had risen quite a bit in hopes of a better quarter.

The Los Angeles Times noted the company didn’t disclose its fourth-quarter net loss during the earnings call, and the next day it took a big hit when investors “got wind of the number,” which was $98.2 million or 54 cents per share.

The company’s figures released Feb. 23 showed a net loss in Q4 of $66.7 million and a loss for the year of $82 million – along with revenue of $1.2 billion in Q4 alone.

“It ends up being pretty hard to pick through Live Nation’s numbers since the company likes to point to a heavily adjusted operating-earnings number rather than recognized bottom-line loss – which may not be all that surprising,” Daily Finance said. “The loss per share of $0.54 missed the $0.30-per-share loss expectation by a wide margin.”