Sphere Entertainment (NYSE:SPHR) and Cedar Fair (NYSE:FUN) Financial Survey

Cedar Fair (NYSE:FUN) and Sphere Entertainment (NYSE:SPHR) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Cedar Fair and Sphere Entertainment, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cedar Fair	1	1	10	0	2.75
Sphere Entertainment	1	4	3	0	2.25

Cedar Fair presently has a consensus target price of $56.42, indicating a potential upside of 43.23%. Sphere Entertainment has a consensus target price of $50.71, indicating a potential upside of 14.56%. Given Cedar Fair’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Cedar Fair is more favorable than Sphere Entertainment.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

64.7% of Cedar Fair shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.0% of Sphere Entertainment shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of Cedar Fair shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 24.5% of Sphere Entertainment shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Cedar Fair has a beta of 1.55, indicating that its stock price is 55% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sphere Entertainment has a beta of 1.41, indicating that its stock price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Cedar Fair and Sphere Entertainment”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cedar Fair	$1.82 billion	1.11	$124.56 million	$2.43	16.21
Sphere Entertainment	$1.03 billion	1.52	-$200.65 million	$10.89	4.07

Cedar Fair has higher revenue and earnings than Sphere Entertainment. Sphere Entertainment is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cedar Fair, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Cedar Fair and Sphere Entertainment’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cedar Fair	6.80%	-23.97%	6.70%
Sphere Entertainment	-19.54%	-9.02%	-4.63%

Summary

Cedar Fair beats Sphere Entertainment on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cedar Fair

Cedar Fair, L.P. owns and operates amusement and water parks, as well as complementary resort facilities. Its amusement parks include Cedar Point located on Lake Erie between Cleveland and Toledo in Sandusky, Ohio; Knott's Berry Farm near Los Angeles, California; Canada's Wonderland near Toronto, Ontario; Kings Island near Cincinnati, Ohio; Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina; Kings Dominion situated near Richmond, Virginia; California's Great America located in Santa Clara, California; Dorney Park in Pennsylvania; Worlds of Fun located in Kansas City, Missouri; Valleyfair situated near Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota; Michigan's Adventure situated near Muskegon, Michigan; Schlitterbahn Waterpark & Resort New Braunfels in New Braunfels, Texas; and Schlitterbahn Waterpark Galveston in Galveston, Texas. The company also owns and operates the Castaway Bay Indoor Waterpark Resort, Hotel Breakers, Cedar Point's Express Hotel, and Sawmill Creek Resort. Cedar Fair, L.P. was founded in 1983 and is based in Sandusky, Ohio.

About Sphere Entertainment

Sphere Entertainment Co. engages in the entertainment business. It produces, presents, or hosts various live entertainment events, including concerts, family shows, and special events, as well as sporting events, such as professional boxing, college basketball and hockey, professional bull riding, mixed martial arts, and esports and wrestling in its venues, including The Garden, Hulu Theater, Radio City Music Hall, and the Beacon Theatre in New York City; and The Chicago Theatre. The company also operates entertainment dining and nightlife venues markets under the Tao, Marquee, Lavo, Beauty & Essex, Cathédrale, Hakkasan, and Omnia brand names. The company was formerly known as Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. and changed its name to Sphere Entertainment Co. in April 2023. Sphere Entertainment Co. was founded in 2006 and is based in New York, New York.