Sphere Entertainment Inc. shares rose 5.4 percent this week to $35.04, led by Wall Street giant Point72 Asset Management hedge fund. Steve Cohenacquired a 5.5% stake in the company, making it one of the best-performing companies on the stock index this week. Billboard Global Music Index.
Cohen owns the New York Mets baseball team. MSG Sports, a sister company of Sphere, James Dolan As CEO of both companies, he owns Las Vegas’ two major professional sports franchises: the New York Knicks basketball team and the New York Rangers hockey team. The city’s Sphere venue will host its first-ever sporting event on Friday night (June 28): the National Hockey League Draft.
Meanwhile, radio companies Cumulus Media and iHeartMedia rose 9.1% and 9.0%, respectively, this week as radio stocks outperformed other publicly traded music companies on the Billboard Global Music Index. Both Cumulus and iHeartMedia recovered nearly half of the losses they suffered over the previous two weeks. Cumulus closed at $2.04 after falling 21.1% from June 7 to June 21. Similarly, iHeartMedia closed at $1.09 this week after falling 21.1% over the previous two weeks. Townsquare Media, which is not included in the index, rose 9.2% to $10.93, reversing a 5% decline this year to a 3.7% gain.
But many radio companies will continue to face tough times in 2024 as they navigate a tough advertising environment. Through June 28, iHeartRadio was down 59.2% and Cumulus was down 61.7%.
The Billboard Global Music Index was essentially unchanged from the previous week, up less than a percentage point to 1,815.54. The index’s year-to-date gains were also unchanged at 18.3%. Sixteen of the 20 companies were down within a range of +2.1% to -3.4%, with most stocks barely making a dent. Despite 12 companies rising, the biggest gainers were the index’s smallest companies, and their gains were offset by losses from larger names like Spotify (down 1.1%), CTS Eventim (down 1.3%) and SiriusXM (down 3.4%).
Streaming stocks fell 0.4% on average, their worst week of all sectors. The top streaming company was Anghami, up 0.9% to $1.07. Cloud Music and Deezer were both down less than 1%. LiveOne was down 1.3% to $1.57.
Reservoir Media was the biggest gainer this week, rising 11.9%, including a 9.6% gain on Friday alone to $7.90. The increase came without any major news or analyst commentary. The last analyst to raise Reservoir’s price target was B. Riley on May 31, the day after Reservoir announced an 18% increase in full-year revenue to $145 million.
All K-pop companies posted modest gains this week. HYBE rose 1.3% to 202,500 won ($146.60). Fellow Billboard Global Music Index member SM Entertainment added 1.1% to 80,400 won ($54.21). Elsewhere, JYP Entertainment rose 2.1% to 57,300 won ($41.48) and YG Entertainment fell 1.0% to 40,300 won ($29.18). However, all four stocks are down significantly in 2024, with an average decline of 22.6% year to date.
Major stock indexes had mixed results this week. In the United States, the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.2% to 17,732.60, while the S&P 500 fell 0.1% to 5,460.48. South Korea’s KOSPI Composite Index rose 0.5% to 2,797.82. In the UK, the FTSE 100 fell 0.9%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.0% to 2,967.40.
