NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / February 17, 2016 / SeeThruEquity, a leading independent equity research and corporate access firm focused on smallcap and microcap public companies, today announced it has initiated coverage on Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE) with a Price Target of $8.27.

The report is available here: LIVE Initiation Report. SeeThruEquity is an approved equity research contributor on Thomson First Call, Capital IQ, FactSet, and Zack's. The report will be available on these platforms. The firm also contributes its estimates to Thomson Estimates, the leading estimates platform on Wall Street.

Based in Las Vegas, NV, Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE) is a diversified holding company focused on acquiring profitable companies that have demonstrated a strong history of earnings power. Formerly YP.com, LIVE has undergone a turnaround since Isaac Capital Group became involved with the company in January 2012, when LIVE was a money-losing web services company with a market capitalization of $1mn and on the verge of a NASDAQ delisting. Fast forward to 2015, and LIVE just reported its first quarter of positive EBITDA in 27 quarters, with annualized revenues of over $80mn. Today the company is far from what it was in 2012, as management has embarked on a thoughtful acquisition strategy to supplement LIVE's existing operations with scale and cash flow by acquiring profitable businesses with stable revenues based and a history of consistent performance.

"We see LIVE as a transformational turnaround story led by a savvy and heavily invested management team - management, its affiliates and insiders control approximately 60% of shares - that is unlikely to remain under Wall Street's radar for long. LIVE has undergone sweeping changes since Isaac Capital Group took over the company in December 2011. The most significant change to LIVE's business has come about in the last year, however. In 2015, LIVE management announced that it would leverage its investment experience to transform LIVE into a diversified holding company. In short, management is now pursuing an acquisition-based strategy to supplement its existing businesses with predictable revenues, scale and cash flow. We expect management to focus on identifying stable, easy to understand industrial companies with experienced management teams operating in the manufacturing and value-add distribution space," stated Ajay Tandon, CEO of SeeThruEquity. "We are initiating coverage with a 12-month price target of $8.27 per share."

Additional highlights from the report are as follows:

Transformative acquisition a game changer for LIVE

In July 2015, LIVE completed the first major transaction in its new strategy with the acquisition of Georgia-based Marquis Industries. Marquis Industries is a high-performance specialty yarns manufacturer, hard surfaces reseller, and is a top 10 high-end residential carpet manufacturer in the United States. Marquis has over 3,000 customers and has a well-defined strategy providing carpeting and flooring products to residential (80%) and commercial end markets. Through its A-O Division, Marquis Industries also has exposure to the growing artificial turf industry. A-O utilizes its state-of-the-art yarn extrusion capacity to market monofilament textured yarn products to the artificial turf industry. According to the company, Marquis is the only manufacturer in the world that can produce certain types of yarn prized by the industry.

Initial view of Live Ventures Incorporated looks very positive

Although LIVE filings has indicated that Marquis would immediately add scale and profits to the company, we were pleased to see LIVE announce its first profitable results in 27 quarters in fiscal 4Q15 (ended September 30). Marquis Industries generated $59.1mn in revenues in 2014 with EBITDA of $6.9mn - representing an attractive 12% EBITDA margin - and it seems the company met or exceeded its 2015E projection for $64mn in revenues, as LIVE reported a record $18.1mn in revenues during FY3Q15, with adjusted EBITDA of $2mn. We expect these figures to grow in 2016E, in line with management's commentary, and also note that LIVE acquired the remaining 20% of Marquis Industries from its former ownership in late November, which should allow a higher percentage of profits to flow to the Live Ventures' bottom line. Importantly, LIVE also announced that it was seeking to raise up to $15mn in cash from a sale leaseback transaction involving Marquis Industries' real estate, which would allow the company to pay down high interest debt rapidly and pursue additional acquisitions in 2016E.

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About Live Ventures, Incorporated

Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE) is a diversified holding company with several wholly owned subsidiaries and a strategic focus on acquiring profitable companies that have demonstrated a strong history of earnings power. Live Ventures Incorporated provides, among other businesses, marketing solutions that boost customer awareness and merchant visibility on the Internet. We operate a deal engine, which is a service that connects merchants and consumers via an innovative platform that uses geo-location, enabling businesses to communicate real-time and instant offers to nearby consumers. In addition, we maintain, through our subsidiary, ModernEveryday, an online consumer products retailer and, through our subsidiary, Marquis Industries, a specialty, high-performance yarns manufacturer, hard-surfaces re-seller, which is a top-10 high-end residential carpet manufacturer in the United States. Marquis Industries, through its A-O Division, utilizes its state-of-the-art yarn extrusion capacity to market monofilament textured yarn products to the artificial turf industry. Marquis Industries is the only manufacturer in the world that can produce certain types of yarn prized by the industry.

About SeeThruEquity

SeeThruEquity is an equity research and corporate access firm focused on companies with less than $1 billion in market capitalization. The research is not paid for and is unbiased. The company does not conduct any investment banking or commission based business. SeeThruEquity is approved to contribute its research to Thomson One Analytics (First Call), Capital IQ, FactSet, Zacks, and distribute its research to its database of opt-in investors. The company also contributes its estimates to Thomson Estimates, the leading estimates platform on Wall Street.

For more information visit www.seethruequity.com.

Contact:

Ajay Tandon
SeeThruEquity
info@seethruequity.com

SOURCE: SeeThruEquity