Here is the note for people to judge for themselves 😁 - love to know where you disagree, why are outlook is “weak” and not well substantiated? Thanks!
“We are moving SPHR from an Active Long to the Long Bench. The stock is up ~58% since we made it an active long on August 24th, in anticipation of the successful launch of The Wizard of Oz (WoZ) on August 29th, 2025. The move is driven by increasingly unattractive risk/reward, even as the data continues to track well for the show (Exhibit A). As we highlighted in our presentation on 9/19 (click here for the replay including a detailed write-up), we think fair value for shares is $70-$75 (Exhibit B), but with the stock now in the high $60s and the main catalyst, the launch of WoZ, behind us, our view is that playing this name from bench makes more sense.
The next catalysts on the calendar are potentially another MSGN renewal, likely with Fios, and the 3Q25 earnings report, which could cause some near-term volatility.
As we laid out in our presentation, the regional sports network industry is in secular decline, and MSGN already had an ugly renewal with Altice earlier this year. We are not expecting the next renewal to be positive either, as continued cord-cutting pressures subscriptions, which drives carriers to demand lower fees, negatively affecting MSGN and other RSNs.
If management were to divest MSGN ahead of this renewal or coincident with it, that would be neutral to net-positive for the equity in our view - but not something we want to bet on at $68/share.
We think that reported Q3 results could be softer within the broader context of the successful WoZ launch. While WoZ has exceeded expectations, due to the late August release the show will only impact the last 5 weeks of the quarter, with the rest of the Experience segment being made up of the older shows.
$SPHR will also not have any corporate takeovers in Q3 compared to 3 in Q2, which represents a QoQ headwind to AOI. None of this is new information, but in the context of the recent stock move, these factors may matter more in the high $60s than they did in the $40s or $50s.
In our bull case scenario, we can underwrite shares to $85 , but this is driven by consistently pushing ASPs higher in the out years along with consistently higher utilization rates in the Experience segment.
This scenario is not our base case, and we have some concerns with the 2026 Experience renewal plan, with From the Edge being planned to take over from WoZ. Our view is that WoZ, being well-known licensed IP, justified the ticketing price increase as well as helped the venue achieve and maintain the high utilization numbers we are seeing. From the Edge is an extreme sports movie, not well-known licensed IP.
We plan to continue to track the data for SPHR and provide updates, but at this point, we are happier playing this name from the long bench.”