StubHub’s Long-Awaited IPO Is Nearly Here — Investor and Analyst Sentiments Appear Mixed

The long-awaited StubHub IPO is a go, with pricing reportedly teed up for tomorrow ahead of a scheduled Wednesday trading kickoff.

StubHub (NYSE: STUB) announced the multibillion-dollar IPO early last week, before the New York Stock Exchange on Friday formally confirmed that it’d given “its approval for listing and registration.”

Now, the focus is shifting to STUB’s actual performance, and some are anticipating a rough share-price showing for the company out of the gate. On this front, we previously broke down StubHub’s underwhelming H1 2025 financials.

Additionally, the ticketing sector hardly lacks well-positioned players, among them SeatGeek, TickPick, Vivid Seats, and, of course, Live Nation’s Ticketmaster.

(Towards 2025’s beginning, reports suggested that Vivid Seats was attracting a bit of private equity interest, though its shares are down substantially on the year following a brutal second quarter.)

Barron’s touched on several of these points when warning investors to “be cautious” about the IPO against the backdrop of “a tough ticket reselling market.”

Similarly, Seeking Alpha analyst Gary Alexander settled on a neutral rating for StubHub, striking an optimistic tone about the entity’s gross sales growth while also noting “recent declines in EBITDA and cash flow plus the likelihood of an exorbitant valuation.”

And analyst Vince Martin indicated that the “valuation looks stretched” for StubHub’s IPO, besides breaking down a “disappointing international expansion and user experience concerns.”

On the other hand, the actual market timing appears positive enough here.

And if different reports are any indication, many are eager to invest in the company, which is looking to score a market cap in excess of $9 billion with shares priced at $22 to $25 a pop.

According to anonymous sources cited by Reuters – and bearing in mind the “exorbitant valuation” possibility – StubHub has managed to draw “over 20 times as many orders for its planned initial public offering as there are available shares.”

(Even so, Reuters Breakingviews columnist Jennifer Saba in a separate piece today laid out a more measured assessment of StubHub’s positioning, maintaining, seemingly without much concern about hitting third parties with stray barbs, that the business “is seeking Beyoncé rates for a JP Saxe tour.”)

With all that said, it’ll certainly be worth monitoring STUB’s performance.

Closing on a related note, stiff competition, antitrust regulatory scrutiny, and StubHub IPO or not, Live Nation stock (NYSE: LYV) just recently cracked another record high and finished today at $172.38 per share.

The figure represents a 70% boost from mid-September 2024 and reflects a more than $40.4 billion market cap.