Shares in Sphere venue jump after U2 launch in Las Vegas

The stock surged as much as 13% to $42 today, the largest intraday leap in almost six weeks

Mon, 02 Oct, 2023 - 18:04

Shares in Sphere Entertainment jumped yesterday after the live-entertainment company’s Las Vegas venue opened on Friday with a show from rock band U2.

The stock surged as much as 13% to $42 today, the largest intraday leap in almost six weeks. Sphere’s shares have nearly doubled in 2023.

Management has “achieved its goal of setting a new standard in the live category,” Macquarie analyst Paul Golding wrote in a note after attending the U2 show over the weekend.

The experience was “premium, totally immersive, blurring the lines between digital and physical planes in ways unknown to us to exist otherwise,” he said. Macquarie has a neutral rating on Sphere Entertainment and a 12-month price target of $32.

The opening of the $2.3bn (€2.19bn) venue has drawn attention to the Las Vegas Strip at a time casinos and hotels are seeing consumers spend less as pandemic-era stimulus savings wane. The venue is the latest addition to CEO James Dolan’s portfolio of live-entertainment names. He also heads Madison Square Garden Sports and Madison Square Garden Entertainment.

The Sphere's exoscreen transforms into a giant emoji ahead of U2's opening performance.

“The experience at Sphere left us more optimistic for residency or live event revenue to exceed our current expectations,” Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne wrote in a note. He has an equal-weight rating and $24 price target on shares of Sphere.

In addition to U2’s 25-show run, the Sphere has a slate of high-profile events on the calendar for the rest of the year. An original immersive production directed by Darren Aronofsky opens to the public on October 6, and in mid-November, Formula 1 will take over the Sphere for multiple days for its inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Wall Street is still largely on the sidelines on shares of Sphere Entertainment — only 2 analysts give the company buy-equivalent ratings, while six say to hold shares. The average price target of about $31 represents a nearly 25% downside from where shares currently trade.