Iconic events venue and entertainment company Madison Square Garden launched its initial public offering in mid-April and appears to be working on the right side of its first post-IPO base. On Wednesday, the IBD Relative Strength (RS) Rating for Madison Square Garden stock rose 11 points, from 66 to 77.
The upgraded 77 RS Rating means watchlist candidate Madison Square Garden stock tops 77% of all stocks for price performance over the past 12 months. It's a welcome improvement but CAN SLIM investors would like to see a bit more. History reveals that the market's biggest winners often have an RS Rating north of 80 in the early stages of their moves. See if Madison Square Garden can continue to rebound and hit that benchmark. That said, the Garden's other key ratings shine brightly.
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Madison Square Garden Stock Gains Attention Of Big Funds
The New York-based company has a strong 80 Earnings Per Share Rating, out of 99. It carries an 81 Composite Rating and a B- Accumulation/Distribution Rating on an A+ to E scale. The B- rating shows that big investors like insurance and university funds, mutual funds, ETFs and the like are buying more shares than selling. And there is growing interest by big money investors. The number of funds owning Madison Square Garden stock jumped from 1 in the March-ended quarter to 185 in the June quarter.
Small-cap Madison Square Garden stock is trying to complete a consolidation with a 40.81 buy point. See if the stock can clear the breakout price in volume at least 40% above average. Wednesday afternoon, it traded at about 34, down 2.9% for the day. However, it's closed higher seven of the last nine trading sessions.
In addition to hosting concerts, professional sports team events, fights and other events at The Garden, the company also owns and operates a variety of venues including Radio City Music Hall, among others.
Profit Growth Strong, Sales Growth Shrinks
Madison Square Garden posted a 42-cents per share profit for its March 31-ended fiscal third quarter, according to MarketSmith, reversing powerfully from an 8-cent loss a year earlier. Its fiscal second quarter EPS rose 238%. Revenue in its latest quarter edged up just 4% to $201.2 million. However, its sales grew 79% the prior quarter.
Madison Square Garden stock holds the No. 10 rank among its peers in the 45-stocks Leisure-Services industry group. Health, fitness and wellness company Life Time Group Holdings and Hilton Grand Vacations are among the group's highest-rated stocks.
When looking for the best stocks to buy and watch, keep a close on eye on relative price strength.
IBD's proprietary RS Rating tracks technical performance by showing how a stock's price movement over the last 52 weeks compares to that of the other stocks in our database.
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