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I'm not sure if you all noticed the background of one of the newly appointed Directors (from Behind the Thrills) -

Charles Koppelman was on Six Flags’ board of directors from 2010 – 2016. This expertise in the theme park industry may coincide with certain traits that SeaWorld is looking to take from Six Flags. Last year, for example, SeaWorld introduced a new strategy of adding a major attraction to every park, something that Six Flags has been doing for a long time. Koppelman’s knowledge with brand development could prove useful as SeaWorld continues to work to improve its image after several years of bad publicity.
 
Second Quarter 2019 Highlights
  • Attendance increased by 0.8%, to 6.5 million guests from the second quarter of 2018.
  • Total revenue increased by 3.6%, to $406.0 million from the second quarter of 2018.
  • Net income increased by 132.0%, to $52.7 million from the second quarter of 2018.
  • Adjusted EBITDA[1] increased by 22.7% to $149.7 million from the second quarter of 2018.


EPS of $0.64 which significant beats analyst predictions:

Average prediction: 0.53
Low prediction 0.43
High prediction 0.59


Seas was on the lower end of total revenue predictions though so they achieved this EPS by other financial means (such as their staffing cuts).
 
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All in all I'd say this was a very good quarter for SEAS. They continued their upward trend. Not as strong as perhaps hoped in some areas but given that it's assumed Q2 for the entertainment industry wasn't a very great one industry wide this is a good indication that SEAS is on the right track.

Their numbers improved in ever single category over Q2 2018 and for the first 6 months of the year almost every single tracked category saw an improvement from the same period in 2018.

All in all these numbers are very good for SEAS and I imagine there will be a lot of discussion about how their strategy to focus on events and building new rides and attractions is working and bearing fruits. Doesn't look like 2021 is going to be cancelled at this point.
 
Here is the summary of the first six months of this year from their SEC filing.

First Six Months 2019 Results


In the first six months of 2019, the Company hosted approximately 9.8 million guests and generated total revenues of $626.6 million, net income of $15.6 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $166.1 million. Net income includes approximately $4.3 million of pre-tax expenses associated with a previously announced equity transaction and $2.6 million of pre-tax expenses associated with restructuring and other separation-related costs. Net income in the first six months of 2018 includes approximately $30.2 million of pre-tax expenses associated with separation-related costs and legal settlement accruals recorded in the first half of 2018.

One of the numbers I didn't like that much from their report was that their long term debt went up to $1.660B from $1.553B. So it looks like they are going with the philosophy of you have to spend money to make money.

Debt and Liquidity

As of June 30, 2019, the Company’s total leverage ratio2 as calculated under the Senior Secured Credit Facilities was 3.55 to 1.00.

One thing that did help their results was that the in park spending went up. So people are spending more while in the park. But some of this increase is obviously the result of the price increases in the food. But it's still nice to see that things keep on improving for the company and I'm sure we all hope this trend doesn't stop!
 
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The primary concern as of right now is their admission revenue, as per cap soending on admission has remained flat.

I'm fairly certain they are experimenting with price points in order to ensure their gates open up to new potential customers in their market who may not have originally chosen a SEAS park due to more affordable options being available in the area.

So while admission remained flat, the guests who are in the parks are happily spending an impressive amount of money.
 
Per cap admissions would be expected to be flat as their primary push is on the membership program.
 
Your admissions thinking is correct as for the 2nd quarter admission revenue went up slightly to $35.25M from $35.21M for the same period in 2018. But the overall admission revenue went down for the first six months to $36.39M from $36.92M in 2018.
 
Pretty boring conference call overall. Most of the questions have been around attendance and impacts from weather and the other players (Disney and universal).

I didn't hear any information that we didn't already know.

That said, the board reiterated multiple times that they are happy with their high level strategy and are confident in its ability to continue to drive growth.
 
One thing acknowledged was seaworld's focus on coasters, animals, and SS. To me that means that we should see them continue to try to stay ahead of the other parks in thrill rides, maybe even seeing another coaster or flat for SWO in the next year or two.
 
3rd Quarter financial results overview.

SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: SEAS), a leading theme park and entertainment company, today reported its financial results for the third quarter and first nine months of fiscal year 2019.

Third Quarter 2019 Highlights taken from their SEC filing.

Attendance decreased by 0.2 million guests, or 2.6%, to 8.1 million guests from the third quarter of 2018.
Total revenue decreased by $9.5 million, or 2.0%, to $473.7 million from the third quarter of 2018.
Net income increased by $2.0 million, or 2.1%, to $98.0 million from the third quarter of 2018.
Adjusted EBITDA[1] decreased by $5.5 million, or 2.6%, to $206.9 million from the third quarter of 2018.
First Nine Months 2019 Highlights


Attendance decreased by 0.1 million guests, or 0.3%, to 17.9 million guests from the first nine months of 2018.
Total revenue increased by $8.0 million, or 0.7%, to $1.1 billion from the first nine months of 2018.
Net income increased by $57.8 million, or 103.5%, to $113.7 million from the first nine months of 2018.
Adjusted EBITDA increased by $36.3 million, or 10.8%, to $373.0 million from the first nine months of 2018.
Other Highlights


In the third quarter of 2019, the Company helped rescue over 490 animals and surpassed 36,000 total rescues over its history.

“We are pleased with the progress we have made this year towards optimizing our business and operations. While we are disappointed with our financial results in the quarter, we believe these results would have been stronger – and that we would have grown attendance, total revenue and Adjusted EBITDA – absent unusually unfavorable weather, a negative calendar shift and a significant overspend of certain marketing related expenses,” said Marc Swanson, Interim Chief Executive Officer of SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. “In the third quarter, attendance across several of our parks, in particular in Florida, was negatively impacted by significantly more rain days when compared to the prior year. We estimate the number of weather days impacting the quarter for our Florida parks increased by almost 50% compared to the prior year quarter. Additionally, over Labor Day weekend (one of our highest attendance weekends of the year), attendance at our Florida parks was considerably impacted by Hurricane Dorian, due to its related impact on travel and visitation plans and park operating hours. We estimate the attendance impact related to Hurricane Dorian was over 90,000 visits. Also, the third quarter was negatively impacted by a calendar shift that moved one peak weekend summer day in July to a less impactful weekday day in September. In aggregate, we estimate the combination of unusually unfavorable weather and the negative calendar shift reduced our quarterly attendance by approximately 330,000 guests.”

Debt and Liquidity

As of September 30, 2019, the Company’s total leverage ratio2 as calculated under the Senior Secured Credit Facilities was 3.34 to 1.00.

One thing that always bugs me is that even though they seem to be doing better they aren't paying down their long term debt, which was reported to be $1.561B. This is up from the end of last years figure. Now their earnings per share was $1.24 which is up from the $1.10 at the same time last year, which is good.
 
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3rd Quarter financial results overview.

SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: SEAS), a leading theme park and entertainment company, today reported its financial results for the third quarter and first nine months of fiscal year 2019.

Third Quarter 2019 Highlights taken from their SEC filing.

Attendance decreased by 0.2 million guests, or 2.6%, to 8.1 million guests from the third quarter of 2018.
Total revenue decreased by $9.5 million, or 2.0%, to $473.7 million from the third quarter of 2018.
Net income increased by $2.0 million, or 2.1%, to $98.0 million from the third quarter of 2018.
Adjusted EBITDA[1] decreased by $5.5 million, or 2.6%, to $206.9 million from the third quarter of 2018.
First Nine Months 2019 Highlights


Attendance decreased by 0.1 million guests, or 0.3%, to 17.9 million guests from the first nine months of 2018.
Total revenue increased by $8.0 million, or 0.7%, to $1.1 billion from the first nine months of 2018.
Net income increased by $57.8 million, or 103.5%, to $113.7 million from the first nine months of 2018.
Adjusted EBITDA increased by $36.3 million, or 10.8%, to $373.0 million from the first nine months of 2018.
Other Highlights


In the third quarter of 2019, the Company helped rescue over 490 animals and surpassed 36,000 total rescues over its history.

“We are pleased with the progress we have made this year towards optimizing our business and operations. While we are disappointed with our financial results in the quarter, we believe these results would have been stronger – and that we would have grown attendance, total revenue and Adjusted EBITDA – absent unusually unfavorable weather, a negative calendar shift and a significant overspend of certain marketing related expenses,” said Marc Swanson, Interim Chief Executive Officer of SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. “In the third quarter, attendance across several of our parks, in particular in Florida, was negatively impacted by significantly more rain days when compared to the prior year. We estimate the number of weather days impacting the quarter for our Florida parks increased by almost 50% compared to the prior year quarter. Additionally, over Labor Day weekend (one of our highest attendance weekends of the year), attendance at our Florida parks was considerably impacted by Hurricane Dorian, due to its related impact on travel and visitation plans and park operating hours. We estimate the attendance impact related to Hurricane Dorian was over 90,000 visits. Also, the third quarter was negatively impacted by a calendar shift that moved one peak weekend summer day in July to a less impactful weekday day in September. In aggregate, we estimate the combination of unusually unfavorable weather and the negative calendar shift reduced our quarterly attendance by approximately 330,000 guests.”

Debt and Liquidity

As of September 30, 2019, the Company’s total leverage ratio2 as calculated under the Senior Secured Credit Facilities was 3.34 to 1.00.

One thing that always bugs me is that even though they seem to be doing better they aren't paying down their long term debt, which was reported to be $1.561B. This is up from the end of last years figure. Now their earnings per share was $1.24 which is up from the $1.10 at the same time last year, which is good.

Debt paydown usually happens after the financials are stabilized. They are still on a recovery curve so debt paydown is not a priority over adding attractions and growing their customer base.
 
This is true on paying off the debt but why did they authorize spending $150mil on a stock repurchase back in like May? By authorizing that the board must have thought they were in decent enough financial shape to approve it. That money could have been spent on attractions and the customer base like you said but some of that could have gone toward the debt. Now the one helpful thing it did do was it probably convinced Hill Path Capital to significantly increase it's number of shares which injects money into Seaworld's finances.
 
This is true on paying off the debt but why did they authorize spending $150mil on a stock repurchase back in like May? By authorizing that the board must have thought they were in decent enough financial shape to approve it. That money could have been spent on attractions and the customer base like you said but some of that could have gone toward the debt. Now the one helpful thing it did do was it probably convinced Hill Path Capital to significantly increase it's number of shares which injects money into Seaworld's finances.

If you recall, our Chinese investor went belly up, and so the board had to react to do something to take those shares off of the liquidator and increase investor confidence. Hill Path bought most of those shares with SeaWorld repurchasing the rest.
 
Double post but I wanted to go into more details.

Long term investor's shares aren't generally considered as part of the open market. While presumably, there is nothing that stops an investor from dumping their position, they usually won't. Even if they do, they'll usually find someone to buy the whole lot at once.

But when an investment company goes bankrupt, a liquidator comes in and sells everything. If no buyer came forward immediately, the liquidator would have dumped those millions of shares into the open market. The price of the stock would have sharply dipped and triggered other people's "stop loss" orders (for those not aware, this is a commonly used order to prevent people from losing everything)

Long story short, if Seas had not acted to find a buyer and wipe those shares out, the stock would have taken a hit that would have taken years or more to recover from.
 
The rare triple post.

But I wanted to "blog" my live reaction to this conference call.

The part where they apologized for a large overspend in marketing was like omg awkward. Sounds like someone got their rear end lit on fire over that crap. Sounds like a real shitshow. I've never heard anything like that on a call like this. I'm going to relisten and put the quote here.

Additional future sesame parks were mentioned as a possibility (made it seem likely). No specifics obviously.

I think they said every (or was it almost every?) park gets something next year. This means WCUSA might be getting something not announced yet. I need to relisten to this section again..

Q/A open now. They're hammering on this marketing overspend.
 
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Anything about resorts mentioned? If the new CEO does have that background i wonder if we may finally see SEAS jump into the hotel market?
 
Anything about resorts mentioned? If the new CEO does have that background i wonder if we may finally see SEAS jump into the hotel market?

Nothing that I heard. I'm going to rerun it later when it's posted.
 
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