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The Company is a regional amusement park operator, which owns amusement parks, outdoor water parks, indoor water parks and hotels.
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NetscribeEntnmnt (78.83) Submitted: 12/22/06 9:21 AM : Start Price: $23.71 FUN Score: -7.78
Cedar Fair founded in 1983, started with just two parks Cedar Point and Valleyfair. It now owns and operates 12 amusement parks, six water parks and six hotels situated across US. The company derives bulk of its revenue from admission fees charged for the parks that contribute more than half of total revenues, while revenues earned from food, merchandise and games contribute around 36%, with two of its most popular parks Knott’s Berry Farm and Cedar Point representing over 60% of the over all tally.The company’s recent performance has seen a mixed result. Its revenue is showing a huge growth, thanks to Cedar Fair’s recent $1.2 billion acquisition of Paramount Parks, while increase in cost is making a dent in the profit. However, now the company has started eliminating costs by developing synergies between Cedar Fair and newly acquired five parks of Paramount. The new strategy of offering admission to all the parks of Cedar and Paramount through an annual seasonal pass for the frequent travelers is likely to pay off. Further, the acquired parks are expected to contribute over 40% to the over all revenue, which will surely make the coming quarterly results look impressive. Additionally, if we consider company’s initiative to reduce the debt, through recent plan to raise $250 million in public offering, as well as the valuable excess property that company holds adjacent to all its parks gives a very good opportunity to grow in the future and thus makes Cedar Fair a good stock for the long term.
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iamamartin (99.20) Submitted: 3/15/07 12:16 AM
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Cedar Point was founded WAAAAAY back, try 1870, but in it's current form, went public in 1987. See http://www.cedarfair.com/ir/company/properties/ for details
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NetscribeEntnmnt (78.83) Submitted: 4/23/07 2:58 AM
Cedar Fair appears to be slowly gaining the benefits of the acquired Paramount Parks as reflected from its performance for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2006. Revenues of the company shot up by 46% to $831.4 mn, primarily driven by improved admissions, while higher sale of food, merchandise & games also boosted the top line. Income from accommodations also observed an upsurge. However, it is the profitability that is showing a negative sign as the high interest expenses due to the acquisition continues to deplete the bottom line, making the income decline by 46%.Cedar Fair in the fiscal also carried out early extinguishments of debt costing about $4.7 million. This can be seen as a healthy sign, as the company appears to be moving in the right direction of reducing the debt quotient and let the bottom line grow. Such reduction of debt is expected to follow in the coming quarters. The company also declared an increase in its regular quarterly cash distribution by one-half cent, to 47.5 cents, which will take effect in the second quarter of 2007. The rise in cash distribution boards well for the shareholders.Going ahead, the company itself has given a strong guidance and expects to gain from recent approval of reduction of interest rates by 50 basis points. The approval is likely save Cedar Fair to the tune of $8 million in the complete fiscal. Moreover, the first full year operations with new parks and the slowly improving margins driven by higher attendance and guest spending can aid company to cross the $1 billion mark in form of the top line revenues, making Cedar Fair a strong proposition.
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