By George Glover
StubHub stock was tumbling on Thursday after a disappointing fourth-quarter earnings report piled on the misery for the ticketing marketplace.
Shares dropped 14% to $8.75 ahead of the opening bell. Futures tracking the S&P 500 were 0.2% lower as investors tried to figure out how long the war in Iran will last.
StubHub posted a wider-than-expected loss and issued soft earnings guidance after Wednesday's close, failing to reassure investors who were already fretting about regulators cracking down on ticket resale sites.
Lawmakers in California and New York have introduced legislation proposing a cap on resale ticket prices.
The U.K. government in November announced new rules making it illegal to resell tickets for live events above the original cost, following a fierce backlash to how Live Nation Entertainment's Ticketmaster priced tickets for Oasis' reunion tour.
"Let's start with a basic fact: ticketing companies and ticketing fees are not now and never have been popular with consumers," Guggenheim analyst Curry Baker, who rates StubHub at Neutral with a $9 price target, said.
"Politically, we see going after "harmful" ticketing practices as a fairly bipartisan issue," he added. "Going forward, we expect more intervention and scrutiny both from the federal government and state attorneys."
Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfenstein, who rates shares at Outperform, cut his price target to $12 from $20 following the weak earnings report, although he said that the stock was "likely washed out" following a recent selloff.
StubHub reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $1.56 a share, as revenue fell 16% from a year ago to $449 million. Revenue for the same period in 2024 got a major boost from Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, as well as a World Series between two teams from major markets, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees.
The results fell short of expectations. Analysts were predicting a loss of 1 cent a share on revenue of $485 million, according to a FactSet poll.
For 2026, the company expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) of $400 million to $420 million, way below the $712 million that Wall Street had been looking for. The company said it would prioritize using artificial intelligence to build a supply management platform, rather than near-term revenue growth.
StubHub made its stock-market debut via an initial public offering in September. The company sold 34 million shares at a price of $23.50 a share. The stock has slumped 57% since the IPO, through Wednesday's close.
Before the listing, Barron's predicted that StubHub's IPO would flop, citing fierce competition from Ticketmaster as well as regulators' anti-scalping initiatives.
Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 05, 2026 08:29 ET (13:29 GMT)
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