Theme park operator United Parks & Resorts (NYSE: PRKS) missed Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q4 CY2025, with sales falling 2.8% year on year to $373.5 million. Its GAAP profit of $0.28 per share was 48% below analysts’ consensus estimates.

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"Our fiscal 2025 results did not meet our expectations,. While the consumer environment was uneven and our results were impacted by negative international tourism trends and volatile weather during certain peak visitation periods, we should have delivered better results, particularly on the cost side of the income statement. We have moved decisively to address our less than optimal cost management and have updated and focused our plans and investments for 2026 designed to drive attendance and guest spending across our parks. These include a compelling lineup of new rides, shows and attractions, an updated events calendar, an expanded concert lineup, new and upgraded food and retail locations, a revamped and enhanced marketing plan and strategy as well as other investments that we expect will drive demand and spending across our parks," said Marc Swanson, Chief Executive Officer of United Parks & Resorts Inc.

Company Overview

Parent company of SeaWorld and home of the world-famous Shamu, United Parks & Resorts (NYSE: PRKS) is a theme park chain featuring marine life, live entertainment, roller coasters, and waterparks.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term sales performance is one signal of its overall quality. Any business can have short-term success, but a top-tier one grows for years. Over the last five years, United Parks & Resorts grew its sales at a 30.9% compounded annual growth rate. Though this growth is acceptable on an absolute basis, we need to see more than just topline growth for the consumer discretionary sector, which can display significant earnings volatility. This means our bar for the sector is particularly high, reflecting the non-essential and hit-driven nature of the products and services offered. Additionally, five-year CAGR starts around Covid, when revenue was depressed then rebounded.

Long-term growth is the most important, but within consumer discretionary, product cycles are short and revenue can be hit-driven due to rapidly changing trends and consumer preferences. United Parks & Resorts’s performance shows it grew in the past but relinquished its gains over the last two years, as its revenue fell by 1.9% annually. Note that COVID hurt United Parks & Resorts’s business in 2020 and part of 2021, and it bounced back in a big way thereafter.

We can better understand the company’s revenue dynamics by analyzing its number of visitors, which reached 4.76 million in the latest quarter. Over the last two years, United Parks & Resorts’s visitors averaged 2.2% year-on-year declines. Because this number aligns with its revenue growth during the same period, we can see the company’s monetization was fairly consistent.

This quarter, United Parks & Resorts missed Wall Street’s estimates and reported a rather uninspiring 2.8% year-on-year revenue decline, generating $373.5 million of revenue.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 2.9% over the next 12 months. Although this projection indicates its newer products and services will spur better top-line performance, it is still below average for the sector.

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Operating Margin

United Parks & Resorts’s operating margin has been trending down over the last 12 months and averaged 24.5% over the last two years. The company’s profitability was mediocre for a consumer discretionary business and shows it couldn’t pass its higher operating expenses onto its customers.

This quarter, United Parks & Resorts generated an operating margin profit margin of 15.1%, down 4.6 percentage points year on year. This contraction shows it was less efficient because its expenses increased relative to its revenue.

Earnings Per Share

We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) for the same reason as long-term revenue growth. Compared to revenue, however, EPS highlights whether a company’s growth is profitable.

United Parks & Resorts’s full-year EPS flipped from negative to positive over the last five years. This is encouraging and shows it’s at a critical moment in its life.

In Q4, United Parks & Resorts reported EPS of $0.28, down from $0.50 in the same quarter last year. This print missed analysts’ estimates. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects United Parks & Resorts’s full-year EPS of $3.04 to grow 29.7%.

Key Takeaways from United Parks & Resorts’s Q4 Results

We struggled to find many positives in these results. Its EPS missed and its EBITDA fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this quarter could have been better. The stock traded down 1.9% to $33.13 immediately after reporting.

United Parks & Resorts’s earnings report left more to be desired. Let’s look forward to see if this quarter has created an opportunity to buy the stock. What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).