Famed short seller Jim Chanos is looking for his next stock to bet on: concert ticket platform Live Nation. The Kynikos Associates founder revealed his bearish view of Live Nation at the 2022 Forbes Iconoclast Summit on Thursday. He said Live Nation represented an ominous combination of inflated valuation and themed investment frenzy in meme stocks and reopening games. “One company that embodies this and that we still think is rated at nosebleeds is Live Nation,” said Chanos. “The vast majority of their concert earnings come from Baby Boom X … people paying $300, $400, $500 to see the Rolling Stones’ 48th final concert tour.” -times 2023 adjusted operating income, but actually trades at 60 times estimated earnings. “This is just an overly overpriced stock that also doesn’t happen to be a great deal,” Chanos said, calling the model “lousy.” He added that Live Nation was not making any money prior to the pandemic. From 2017 to 2019, the company lost money for common shareholders, Chanos said. Live Nation stock is already down more than 36% this year, but Chanos believes it has “much more to go” and says it could easily fall another 50%. Live Nation did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
