Vail Resorts on Friday reported a 15 percent increase in third-quarter earnings as higher lift-ticket sales offset a dip in the number of skiers on its slopes during the challenging winter.
The major North American ski operator also reported higher revenue in its lodging and real-estate operations.
The weather in the Rockies proved unpredictable last winter with lower-than-average snowfall amounts recorded at all five company resorts, chief executive Rob Katz said. Yet heavy snow in metro Denver and along the Front Range thwarted skiers trying to reach resorts.
“Despite these challenges, we were able to continue to drive significantly improved year-over-year resort performance,” Katz told analysts during a conference call.
The results, which beat Wall Street estimates, prompted Vail Resorts to increase its 2007 guidance and pushed its stock up 3 percent to a 52-week high in afternoon trading.
For the quarter ending April 30, Vail reported net income of $78.5 million, or $1.99 a share, up from $68.3 million, or $1.75 a share, a year earlier.
Overall revenue totaled $369.5 million, up 8 percent from $341.4 million in the third quarter of 2006. Mountain revenue rose 4.7 percent to $308.7 million; real-estate revenue more than doubled to $17.1 million; and lodging revenue rose 10.5 percent to $43.6 million.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast a profit of $1.99 a share on revenue of $360.7 million.
In the first nine months of its fiscal year, Vail Resorts reported net income of $95.7 million, or $2.44 a share, compared with net income of $77 million, or $2.01 a share, in the first nine months of 2006. Revenue rose to $844 million, up 18 percent from $714.8 million in the previous nine-month period.
Katz was pleased with the nine-month results, which reflected the entire ski season, despite a 1.1 percent decline to 6.2 million skier visits at the five resorts.
Skier visits for the season declined 12 percent at Heavenly in California and 4.1 percent at Vail, and rose 1.9 percent at Breckenridge, 7 percent at Keystone and 1.7 percent at Beaver Creek.
Katz credited the increase in business to more destination guests who stayed for more than a day.
