Shares of YG Entertainment gained 4.3% this week as ROSÉ and Bruno Mars' 'APT' continued their hot streak. A week after YG stock gained 6.1% after the track debuted on streaming services, the track topped both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. American charts. ROSÉ, a member of YG recording artist BLACKPINK, released “APT” through Atlantic Records in collaboration with THEBLACKLABEL, a YG sub-label founded in 2015 by BLACKPINK producer Teddy Park. While YG continues to manage BLACKPINK, ROSÉ signed with THEBLACKLABEL to manage her solo career.
Shares of Universal Music Group ( UMG ) fell 0.7% for the week but rose 1.6% to 23.45 euros ($25.52) on Friday (Nov. 1) after its third-quarter earnings company the previous day. Morgan Stanley raised its price target to 35 euros ($38) from 33 euros ($35.90). “Our belief in UMG is as high as it has ever been,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note to investors. Guggenheim called UMG's third-quarter results “encouraging” and maintained a €25.50 ($27.74) price target and a “neutral” rating on UMG shares.
SiriusXM gained 4.7% to $27.65 after the company reported third-quarter earnings on Thursday (Oct. 31) that showed a net gain of 14,000 self-pay subscribers in the quarter. Despite the rise, average revenue per user declined due to a “higher proportion of subscribers on promotional and free streaming-only plans,” the company said.
Shares in Deezer gained 2.1% to 1.43 euros ($1.56) after the company's third-quarter earnings showed an 11% increase in revenue and a 9% increase in subscribers. New CEO Alexis Lanternier he sounded upbeat about partnerships with MeLi+ and Mercado Libre, which have turned free trials into a rate “higher than our expectations,” in his words. However, Deezer's share price is down 32.9% year-to-date.
Reservoir Media fell 3.5% to $8.25 after reporting earnings on Wednesday (October 30), which showed a flat 6% rise in revenue. The stock was not lifted by Reservoir's slightly upgraded full-year guidance nor by B. Riley's price target increase to $12.50 from $11.50.
The Billboard 20 Global Music Index (BGMI) was essentially flat for the week, rising 0.3% to 1,995.67, despite having just seven gainers as opposed to 13 losers. The slight rise brought the index's year-to-date gain to 30.1 percent and pushed BGMI back into the winning bracket after falling 0.6 percent the previous week, snapping a six-week winning streak.
Even a small gain beat many major stock indexes. In the United States, the Nasdaq composite fell 1.5% to 18,329.92 and the S&P 500 fell 1.4% to 5,728.80. Both indexes rose on Friday, however, as investors paid little attention to a weak jobs report and both Amazon and Intel jumped after reporting quarterly earnings. On Thursday (October 31), Meta and Microsoft shares fell after their respective earnings reports, with Meta down 3% and Microsoft down more than 5%.
Music streamer LiveOne was the biggest gainer of the week after jumping 32.8% to $0.77. The company announced Thursday that it has engaged MZ Group to increase PodcastOne's exposure to the investment community. LiveOne spun off from PodcastOne in 2023 and retained an 81% stake. Investors may have taken note of MZ Group's data Chris DonovanPodcastOne's statement “owns intellectual property that can be sold for a significant return on investment.”
Outside of YG Entertainment, the other four K-pop stocks lost ground. HYBE fell 3.1% and widened its year-to-date loss to 20.0%. JYP Entertainment fell 4.2%. SM Entertainment fell 0.7%. Collectively, the stock prices of the four K-pop companies fell by 28.6% in 2024.
iHeartMedia jumped 16.1% to $2.09 in the week before the company reported third-quarter earnings on Thursday (Nov. 7). Another radio company, Cumulus Media, fell 19.0% to $0.94 after reporting third-quarter earnings on Friday. The company's revenue fell 1.8 percent to $204 million and posted a net loss of $10.3 million, down from a net profit of $2.7 million in the prior period. “Looking ahead, the advertising environment remains uncertain,” warned Cumulus CEO Mary Berner.
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