Madison Square Garden Surges Following Impressive Earnings Beat

Investors scrambled to buy shares of Madison Square Garden (NYSE: MSG) Friday, when the sports and entertainment venue owner in New York City that hosts the New York Rangers and the New York Knicks (among other assets) released a fantastic earnings report.

The company blew away investors when it announced a fourth-quarter EPS of $0.37 that surpassed past investors' estimates of $0.22. The good news didn't stop there, the company also reported a revenue home-run of $332.9M up from last year's $233.87 million, and far above investors' estimates of $277.14 million. A key increase occurred in the 3 months that ended June 30, where the company raised its revenue to $28.6 million from $8.7 million in 2011. MSG went on to report that its net income had increased an impressive 34 percent to $106.5 million.

When it cane to explaining the revenue beat, MSG credited an increase in sports revenue, partially driven by the Ranger's playoff stint, where the team played 11 home games during the 2012 playoffs, up from last year's two games. MSG also credited the condensed NBA schedule and continuing improvements to the Madison Square Garden facility with aiding in the beat.

It wasn't only sports revenue that increased. Entertainment revenue rose to $50.8 million, up from $36 million in 2011. The increase was attributed to being able to schedule more events, which was possible primarily due to the NBA's compressed schedule,.

MSG's stock is up more than 51 percent year to date, and shares traded at 52 week highs Friday with prices skyrocketing up nearly 10 percent in the morning and leveling off to just below 5 percent by mid-afternoon.

Shares of MSG traded up roughly 3.2 percent towards the end of the day Friday around $41.50.