Vivid Seats (NASDAQ: SEAT) is going to be announcing its first quarter financial results on Tuesday morning, and sentiment is high that the numbers will be another set that bear out the strong reopening from the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns being felt across the board for live entertainment and ticketing businesses. The Chicago-based ticket resale marketplace operates both its flagship website – VividSeats.com – and a white label business that powers other retail ticketing endpoints.
While financial analysts have predicted Vivid Seats will post revenue in excess of $100 million, at least one industry insider felt those estimates may be far lower than the reported figure. That insider indicated a belief that Vivid would see revenues at or around $130 million, which would be more than 15 million higher than the analysts have suggested. Live Nation Entertainment has already dropped its earnings reports for the first quarter, where the company showed record earnings, including March being an all-time record for the company in terms of Gross Ticket Value. It stands to reason, the insider told TicketNews, that Vivid’s earnings report will tell a similar story.
In terms of stock price, SEAT closed Monday at $8.62, down 71 cents on the day and close to its 52-week low of $7.84 a share. In the initial weeks following Vivid’s merger with Horizon Acquisitions Corp. to go public, it traded as high as $14.35 per share, but has hovered largely between $10 and $12 since that point.
Vivid Seats announced its fourth quarter and 2021 full year results back in March, unveiling figures that showed the company in a strong recovery from the COVID-19 slowdown. Its fourth quarter saw new company records for marketplace Gross Order Value ($866.5 million) and revenues ($163.9 million). The performance allowed the company to exceed the full year guidance for both of those benchmarks, as well as Adjusted EBITDA.
“Vivid Seats gained momentum with another record setting quarter for Marketplace GOV and revenues,” said Lawrence Fey, CFO. “In the fourth quarter, we invested significant amounts in our new brand. These investments drove meaningful improvements in awareness while accounting for the quarter-over-quarter decline in Adjusted EBITDA. We continue to view brand awareness as an important investment with meaningful long-term benefits.”
Will the company continue to exceed expectations with its earnings report for Q1? Click the link below to follow the earnings call live on Tuesday morning:
