Madison Square Garden (NYSE:MSGS) Downgraded to Sell Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Madison Square Garden (NYSE:MSGS) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note released on Saturday.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Madison Square Garden from $240.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Madison Square Garden from $355.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Seaport Research Partners raised Madison Square Garden from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $430.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Weiss Ratings raised Madison Square Garden from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Madison Square Garden from $388.00 to $404.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Madison Square Garden currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $342.20.

Madison Square Garden Trading Up 0.6%

NYSE MSGS opened at $351.33 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.46 billion, a P/E ratio of -377.77 and a beta of 0.59. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $326.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $282.47. Madison Square Garden has a 12 month low of $186.00 and a 12 month high of $357.42.

Madison Square Garden (NYSE:MSGS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.83) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.56 by ($1.39). The business had revenue of $432.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $429.66 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.59) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Madison Square Garden will post -0.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Madison Square Garden news, Director Charles P. Dolan sold 5,659 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.26, for a total value of $1,840,646.34. Following the sale, the director directly owned 435 shares in the company, valued at $141,488.10. The trade was a 92.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 19.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Madison Square Garden

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. DGS Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Madison Square Garden by 4.8% in the first quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 832 shares of the company’s stock valued at $267,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Salomon & Ludwin LLC raised its stake in shares of Madison Square Garden by 33.1% in the fourth quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 157 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in shares of Madison Square Garden by 26.5% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 196 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Cibc World Market Inc. raised its stake in shares of Madison Square Garden by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 1,924 shares of the company’s stock valued at $498,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Madison Square Garden by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,746 shares of the company’s stock valued at $452,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. 68.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden Sports Corp (NYSE: MSGS) is a leading sports and entertainment holding company focused on professional sports franchises and related media assets. The company owns and operates teams such as the NBA’s New York Knicks, the NHL’s New York Rangers and the WNBA’s New York Liberty. Through these flagship franchises, MSG Sports offers a range of products and services including ticketing, premium seating and sponsorship opportunities, targeting fans in the New York metropolitan area and beyond.

In addition to team operations, Madison Square Garden Sports Corp holds a majority stake in MSG Networks, a regional cable network that broadcasts live sporting events, news and original programming.