Reviewing Vivid Seats (NASDAQ:SEAT) and Madison Square Garden Entertainment (NYSE:MSGE)

Vivid Seats (NASDAQ:SEAT) and Madison Square Garden Entertainment (NYSE:MSGE) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Vivid Seats and Madison Square Garden Entertainment, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vivid Seats	0	3	5	0	2.63
Madison Square Garden Entertainment	0	3	4	0	2.57

Vivid Seats currently has a consensus price target of $10.31, indicating a potential upside of 72.16%. Madison Square Garden Entertainment has a consensus price target of $39.83, indicating a potential upside of 1.59%. Given Vivid Seats’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Vivid Seats is more favorable than Madison Square Garden Entertainment.

Profitability

This table compares Vivid Seats and Madison Square Garden Entertainment’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vivid Seats	7.92%	-44.25%	5.69%
Madison Square Garden Entertainment	8.03%	-94.05%	5.98%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Vivid Seats and Madison Square Garden Entertainment’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vivid Seats	$712.88 million	1.77	$74.54 million	$0.55	10.89
Madison Square Garden Entertainment	$851.50 million	1.89	$76.60 million	$1.54	25.46

Madison Square Garden Entertainment has higher revenue and earnings than Vivid Seats. Vivid Seats is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Madison Square Garden Entertainment, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

39.9% of Vivid Seats shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.9% of Madison Square Garden Entertainment shares are held by institutional investors. 85.7% of Vivid Seats shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 18.7% of Madison Square Garden Entertainment shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Madison Square Garden Entertainment beats Vivid Seats on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vivid Seats

Vivid Seats Inc. operates an online ticket marketplace in the United States, Canada, and Japan. The company operates in two segments, Marketplace and Resale. The Marketplace segment acts as an intermediary between event ticket buyers and sellers; processes ticket sales on its website and mobile applications through its distribution partners; and sells tickets for sports, concerts, theater events, and other live events. This segment offers Skybox, a proprietary enterprise resource planning tool that helps ticket sellers manage ticket inventories, adjust pricing, and fulfill orders across multiple ticket resale marketplaces; and Vivid Picks daily fantasy sports that allows users to partake in contests by making picks from various sport and player matchups. The Resale segment acquires tickets to resell on secondary ticket marketplaces; and provides internal research and development support for Skybox and to deliver seller software and tools. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

About Madison Square Garden Entertainment

Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. engages in live entertainment business. The company produces, presents, and hosts live entertainment events, including concerts, sports events, and other live events, such as family shows, performing arts events, and special events. Its operations include a collection of venues, the entertainment and sports bookings business, and the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes production. The company was formerly known as MSGE Spinco, Inc. Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. was incorporated in 2022 and is based in New York, New York.