Morgan Stanley’s Best Stock Picks: 15 Stocks To Own For 2025

5. Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q2 2024: 50

Share Price Target Upside: 21%

Share Price Target: $120

Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV) is an entertainment and advertisement company that conducts live events, operates ticket marketplaces, sponsors events, and conducts other associated operations. The firm’s Ticketmaster platform is the largest of its kind, which enables Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV) to earn revenue through a whopping 620 million ticket sales in 2023. At the same time, Ticketmaster has come under sharp criticism from consumers for charging high prices, and Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV) could face headwinds in the future if the government takes actions against it on the assumption that it is abusing its dominant market position. Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV) also holds a key place in the music industry as while record sales have dropped due to the growth in digital streaming, artists still generate popularity through live concerts. The firm can also improve its margins through providing tertiary services such as parking and food at its entertainment venues.

Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV)’s management is quite optimistic about its live events next year. Here’s what it said during the Q2 2024 earnings call:

“As we said from day one, this is never going to be a big stadium year. We’re thrilled that we can still grow the business coming off two years of extraordinary growth, given where we were in 2019. So it’s still a strong year for us overall. Stadiums were always the challenge, international was always going to be a stadium issue given Paris Olympics. Most of France shut down for that month, and most of that affected a lot of the stadium business for the summer. So the good news is, as we predicted, ’25 looks like to be a big banner year again. We’re looking right now at our stadium pipeline for ’25. It’s bigger right now than it was two years ago for ’23. Our amp and arena is bigger right now than it was last year at this time in terms of our pipeline.

So we’ve always thought 2024 would be the year of AOI and amphitheaters and arenas and ’25 will be back to a solid continual growth of stadiums. And as we’ve always predicted post-COVID, we’d be back to an 8%, 9% compounded annual growth as an industry on the top line, and we’ll see that come back to life next year and probably more.”