Record revenue for Cedar Fair

Article Excerpt

CEDAR FAIR L.P. $56 (New York symbol FUN; Income Portfolio, Consumer sector; Units outstanding: 55.9 million; Market cap: $3.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.8; Dividend yield: 5.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cedarfair.com) owns 11 amusement parks, three outdoor water parks, one indoor water park and five hotels. Cedar Fair reported record revenue of $1.16 billion in 2014, up 2.2% from $1.13 billion in 2013. If you exclude the sale of a water park in 2013, attendance was flat. However, spending per guest rose 3%, while out-of-park spending (hotels adjacent to its parks) gained 2%. Higher labour costs and spending on new attractions cut its earnings by 4.1%, to $1.86 a unit from $1.94. The partnership recently raised its quarterly distribution by 7.1%, to $0.75 from $0.70. The new annual rate of $3.00 yields 5.4%. Cedar Fair is a buy. …