Live Nation Entertainment Inc (LYV) stock analysis
Live Nation Entertainment Inc (LYV) clears 3 of this site's 8 mechanical value filters, 4 of 8 Buffett-style checks and 1 of 5 Lynch-style checks. At $174.50 it trades 11.5% above this site's neutral DCF value (a margin of safety of -11.5%). Its earnings quality rates Strong and it returns −0.3% to shareholders net of dilution. Figures are as of October 23, 2026, from SEC filings and market data refreshed weekly; this is educational analysis, not investment advice.
Data as of October 23, 2026. Refreshed weekly from SEC filings and market data.
What does Live Nation Entertainment do?
Live Nation Entertainment promotes concerts, runs venues and sells tickets through Ticketmaster.
Brands and businesses it owns
- Ticketmaster
- Live Nation
- House of Blues
- Front Line
What stands out about Live Nation Entertainment?
- The share price implies 10.7% yearly growth. At $174.50, LYV's free cash flow of $9.17 per share would have to grow 10.7% a year, fading to 2.5% by year 10, for this site's DCF (10% discount rate) to match the price. This site's baseline starts at 8%, so the price asks for more growth than the baseline. Change the assumptions.
- Misses 2 of the 8 value filters. It fails Trailing P/E < 25 (305.14) and Price/Book < 8 (499.24); the other 3 pass and 3 were not evaluated. See every filter.
- Strongest against peers: return on equity. At 180% (peer median 15%) it ranks 1st of 13 among media stocks this site tracks. See the ranking.
- Weakest against peers: P/E ratio. At 305.1× (peer median 26.1×) it ranks 11th of 11 among media stocks this site tracks. See the ranking.
- Balance sheet in the distress zone. Its Altman Z″-Score is 0.22; below 1.1 is the distress zone, 1.1 to 2.6 the grey zone. See the Altman Z″-Score list.
How has Live Nation Entertainment's share price moved?
The interactive price chart needs JavaScript.
Is Live Nation Entertainment undervalued? The value diligence check
Every value-investing signal this site computes for this stock, gathered in one place: the same real numbers from the tools below, not a new score.
- Margin of safety (DCF) -11.5%
- P/E vs. its own history 305.1x · at/above its priciest point Real range: 34.2x–66.6x over 4 years (net income per diluted share from each fiscal year's 10-K, paired with the real closing price at that fiscal year-end).
- Wall St. analyst rating Buy · 4.03/5 31 analysts this month: 8 strong buy, 17 buy, 5 hold, 1 sell, 0 strong sell (Finnhub). Up from 4.00 last month.
- Altman Z″-Score (bankruptcy risk) 0.22 · Distress zone
- Earnings quality (is the profit real?) Strong · all 5 checks clean Beneish M-score −2.53 · accruals −4.2% of assets · 230% of profit arrived as cash · stock comp 0.6% of revenue · share count +0.2% a year. From the latest 10-K (year to Dec 2025) - see the Earnings Quality Screener for how each check is scored.
- Shareholder yield (cash back to owners) −0.3% net Latest fiscal year (2025): dividends 0.0% + buybacks 0.1% − stock comp 0.4%, as a share of today's market cap. Stock comp outruns what comes back in cash. Over 14 years its split-adjusted share count rose 27%. See Shareholder Yield Leaders.
- Capital needed to grow (See's test) None needed · capital fell while profit grew Operating profit $186M → $1.1B, capital needed $1.6B → $618M, 2016–2025 (3-year averages); return on capital now 170% before tax. Buffett's See's Candies needed $0.42 per $1 of new profit, FlightSafety $3.20, a typical grower about $5. See Capital-Light Compounders.
- PEG (growth at a reasonable price) n/a (no PEG reported)
- Compounder lenses (4) 2 of 4 · misses cash back, price (n/a) Capital-light growth: cleared; Profit is real: cleared; Cash to owners: not cleared (−0.3% a year net); Fair price (PEG): cannot be measured (no PEG reported). See Compounders at a Fair Price, which also lets you move the PEG bar.
- Value trap check Clear
- Munger's Inversion Check 2 flags
- Standing vs. sector peers 2 of 6 measures above the median Compared with the 12 other media stocks this site tracks: 1 in the top third, 3 in the bottom third.
How does Live Nation Entertainment compare with its peers?
2 of 6 measures sit above the median of the 12 other media stocks tracked here, 1 in the top third and 3 in the bottom third.
- P/E ratiolower is cheaper · peer median 26.1× 305.1× ✕11th of 11
- Free-cash-flow yieldhigher is cheaper · peer median 4.8% 5.3% –5th of 13
- Return on equityhigher is better · peer median 15% 180% ✓1st of 13
- Net marginhigher is better · peer median 8.7% 0.5% ✕11th of 13
- Revenue growthhigher is better, year on year · peer median 10.8% 10.8% –7th of 13
- Debt / equitylower is safer · peer median 0.57 111.76 ✕13th of 13
Peers are the stocks this site tracks in the same sector group, not every listed competitor. The bar runs from the weakest peer (left) to the strongest (right); the tick is the middle. Measures that don't apply to a sector (cash-flow yield for banks, debt for financials) are left out.
What would Buffett & Lynch say?
Buffett's checklist is built around durable, profitable businesses bought at sensible prices, and LYV doesn't clear enough of it yet. In its favor: LYV is currently earning a strong return on shareholders' equity, and has kept that profitability up over five years, not just this year, earns many times its interest expense, so debt service isn't a worry, and trades at a reasonable multiple of owner earnings, his own term for the real cash a business could pay out. Where it comes up short: LYV carries more debt relative to equity than he typically tolerates, runs thinner pretax margins than he'd like to see, hasn't grown earnings per share fast enough over five years to impress him, and is trading above what a conservative discounted-cash-flow estimate says it's worth right now.
- ROE (TTM) > 11% ✓
- ROE (5yr avg) > 11% ✓
- Debt/Equity < 0.5 ✕
- Pretax margin > 15% ✕
- EPS growth (5yr) > 7% ✕
- Interest coverage > 5x ✓
- Trading below intrinsic value (DCF) ✕
- Price vs. owner earnings < 25x ✓
- Bonus: returning capital via buybacks FY2025
Lynch looked for growth stories that weren't overpriced for that growth, and LYV falls short of his bar. In its favor: LYV converts earnings into real cash at a reasonable price. Where it comes up short: LYV doesn't pay much of a dividend, which is the main reason to own a slow grower in the first place, isn't even growing at the modest pace he'd expect from a slow grower, carries more debt than he liked to see, even allowing for the extra room a large, stable business gets, and is priced too rich for how little growth is actually left in the business.
- Dividend yield > 2.5% ✕
- EPS growth 0%-10% ✕
- Debt/Equity < 0.6 ✕
- P/E < 20 ✕
- Price/FCF < 25 ✓
Quantitative approximations of each investor's documented approach, not endorsed by either investor or their estates - commentary, not this site's actual ranking criteria. Buffett never published a numeric checklist: only 2 of his 8 checks here trace to his own documented concepts ("owner earnings," from his 1986 shareholder letter, and "price is what you pay, value is what you get," his case against fixed P/E/P/B ceilings) - the other 6 (ROE, debt, margins, growth, interest coverage) use commonly-cited thresholds that are not numbers he himself published. The 8 hard filters below (plus the Munger check and Graham margin of safety) are this site's real, mechanical screen and are computed completely independently of the checklists above.
Berkshire Hathaway's own filing
Which of the 8 value filters does Live Nation Entertainment pass?
- Market Cap > $25B $41.1B
- Trailing P/E < 25 305.14
- PEG Ratio < 1.5 n/a
- Price/Book < 8 499.24
- Price/Sales < 7 1.56
- EPS Growth YoY > -5% +16.2%
- vs 50-day MA (±12%) Not evaluated †
- vs 200-day MA (±12%) Not evaluated †
What is Live Nation Entertainment's margin of safety?
History tracking starts this week - check back in a future week to see how this has moved.
Where is Live Nation Entertainment in its 52-week range?
What is the short interest in Live Nation Entertainment?
23,891,774 shares short as of 2026-09-30 (FINRA settlement date). Reported twice a month, so this only changes roughly every two weeks, not daily.
What could go wrong with Live Nation Entertainment? Munger's inversion check
"Invert, always invert." Instead of reasons to buy, these are reasons to hesitate, not a verdict, and not everything worth knowing about a business.
- Margin of safety, even in the bull case +34%
- Short interest under 5% of float 15.2%
- Passes most of the 6 fundamental filters 4/6 passed
- Price run-up backed by value, not just momentum +39% off 52wk low
- Debt/equity stable since 2016 2.05 → 30.26
Doesn't cover circle of competence, management quality, or accounting concerns: those need judgment, not data.
How much have Live Nation Entertainment shareholders gained per year?
Not enough clean earnings history to compute this for LYV yet - a loss year in the window breaks the growth math rather than faking a number through it.
An earnings-based proxy, not a stock-price total return - it doesn't capture multiple expansion/contraction or reinvested dividends. EPS from LYV's own 10-K filings; dividend yield is the current trailing yield on today's price, from the same weekly fetch as the rest of this site.
What do Live Nation Entertainment's 10-year financials show?
From LYV's own 10-K filings (SEC EDGAR): up to the last 10 fiscal years. Press any year's bars for the exact figures.
Frequently asked questions about Live Nation Entertainment
What kind of company is Live Nation Entertainment?
Live Nation Entertainment promotes concerts, runs venues and sells tickets through Ticketmaster. Brands and businesses it owns include Ticketmaster, Live Nation, House of Blues and Front Line. This site groups it with Media stocks.
Is Live Nation Entertainment trading above or below its DCF value?
At $174.50, LYV trades 11.5% above this site's neutral DCF value of $156.56 per share, a margin of safety of −11.5%. That DCF projects free cash flow for 10 years, with growth starting at 8% and fading to 2.5%, discounted at 10%; it is one set of assumptions, not a forecast. Test your own in the Intrinsic Value Calculator.
How many of this site's 8 value filters does Live Nation Entertainment pass?
LYV passes 3 of 8. It passes Market Cap > $25B ($41.1B), Price/Sales < 7 (1.56) and EPS Growth YoY > -5% (+16.2%). It misses Trailing P/E < 25 (305.14) and Price/Book < 8 (499.24). PEG Ratio < 1.5, vs 50-day MA (±12%) and vs 200-day MA (±12%) were not evaluated, because the moving-average checks only run on stocks that clear the fundamentals first. The 8-filter list shows every stock that passes all of them.
How risky is Live Nation Entertainment's balance sheet?
LYV's Altman Z″-Score is 0.22, which falls in the distress zone. Altman's own thresholds are above 2.6 for the safe zone, 1.1 to 2.6 for the grey zone and below 1.1 for the distress zone; the score blends working capital, retained earnings, operating profit and equity against liabilities. Its debt-to-equity ratio is 111.76. See the Altman Z″-Score list.
When does Live Nation Entertainment report earnings next?
Live Nation Entertainment's next earnings report is expected on October 29, 2026 after the market closes, with analysts expecting earnings of $1.56 per share. Dates come from the Finnhub earnings calendar and can move. In its last 4 quarters it beat the estimate 1 time, by an average of −71.7%.
How heavily is Live Nation Entertainment stock sold short?
As of September 30, 2026, 15.2% of LYV's float was sold short (23,891,774 shares, 11.9 days to cover), up 3.3% from the prior reporting period. FINRA publishes short interest twice a month, so it changes about every two weeks; this site flags anything above 5% of the float.
Where do these numbers come from?
- Financial statements: Live Nation Entertainment's 10-K annual report for the year ended Dec 31, 2025, filed Feb 19, 2026 (filing index). Every earlier year in the 10-year financials comes from the company's older 10-K filings, all listed on SEC EDGAR.
- Prices and market data: quotes, P/E and analyst ratings from Finnhub; daily price history and the 52-week range from Twelve Data, both refreshed weekly. Short interest comes from FINRA, reported twice a month.
- How to check a figure: click any number in the card above to see its exact source, and read the Editorial Standards for every rule behind the checks.
About this Live Nation Entertainment Inc analysis
This page shows every value-investing check the site runs on Live Nation Entertainment Inc (LYV) in one place: the 8 mechanical filters, the Buffett and Lynch checklists, a margin of safety from a disclosed DCF, earnings quality, shareholder yield and how it ranks against its sector peers. The numbers come from SEC filings and public market data, refreshed weekly, and the same rules apply to every stock on the stock list. See Editorial Standards for the sources and the rules, or run your own filters in the stock screener.