Live Nation (LYV) Boosts Payment Options With PayPal Partnership
Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. LYV recently announced a multi-year strategic partnership with PayPal Holdings, Inc. PYPL, branding the latter as the Preferred Payments Partner of Ticketmaster. The company stated that PayPal Braintree would become Ticketmaster's primary global payment processor.
The initiative involves the integration of PayPal's payment solutions (comprising Purchase Protection and advanced fraud detection technology), which will facilitate frictionless payment methods and speed up the checkout process. The company stated the availability of multiple payment options across 21 countries, including access to PayPal Checkout, PayPal Pay Later products and Venmo.
The partnership also involves an expanded global marketing program to drive broad engagement and fan loyalty through experiences and offers. To this end, the company has initiated ticket discounts and Cashless credits (using PayPal and Venmo) for festivals like Bonnaroo, BottleRock, and Lollapalooza, subject to certain conditions.
Mark Yovich, president, Ticketmaster, stated, "Our goal is to seamlessly connect artists and event organizers with fans wherever they are in the world, and PayPal helps us take that to the next level with a truly global-reaching payments solution. This partnership gives fans continuity and confidence that they have a secure, trusted, and accessible payment method wherever in the world they happen to be attending an event."
Price Performance
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Shares of Live Nation have declined 39% in the past year compared with the industry’s 27.5% fall. Inflationary pressures and supply chain challenges had taken a toll on the company. Also, it has been witnessing a rise in venue costs and service fees.
Nevertheless, pent-up demand for live events, Ticketmaster systems and the sponsorship and advertising business are likely to aid the company in the upcoming periods. Increased demand for digital ticketing and contactless transactions bode well. The company remains optimistic about its growth prospects. It emphasizes on strengthening its client base to drive growth. Meanwhile, earnings estimates for 2024 have increased in the past 30 days, depicting analysts’ optimism regarding the stock growth potential.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Live Nation currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Some better-ranked stocks in the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector are Cedar Fair, L.P. FUN and Crocs, Inc. CROX.
Cedar Fair sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). The company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 64.5%, on average. The stock has declined 11% in the past year.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FUN’s 2024 sales and EPS indicates a rise of 2% and 6.5%, respectively, from the year-ago period’s estimated levels.
Crocs sports a Zacks Rank #1. The company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 21.8%, on average. Shares of Crocs have increased 75.7% in the past year.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CROX’s 2023 sales and EPS indicates a rise of 12.5% and 2.5%, respectively, from the year-ago period’s levels.
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PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
