Vail Resorts Drops After Q2 Miss

Vail Resorts MTN is down more than one percent in after-hours trading after the company reported its second quarter results. The firm reported a Q2 EPS of $1.60 versus the Street estimate of $1.87. Earnings per share were down three percent from the year-ago period. Revenue arrived at $452.7 million versus the Street estimate of $471.16 million. Sales were up seven percent year-over-year. "Overall, we are very pleased with our performance in the second quarter of fiscal 2014," Rob Katz, Chief Executive Officer of Vail Resorts, said in a company release. "Despite the very challenging conditions in Tahoe, where total snowfall was down 73% as of January 31, 2014 compared to the prior year, we have seen overall growth in visitation of 9.1% and increased guest spending, highlighting the strength of our geographically diverse business model. "Results in Colorado were particularly encouraging, with total visitation up 11.9%, ski school revenue up 9.7% and dining revenue up 16.0% compared to the prior year. Unfortunately, our results were tempered by the very poor snowfall and warm temperatures in Tahoe where total visitation was down 27.7% compared to the prior year. Our Tahoe resorts only had 33% of trails open as of January 31, 2014, compared to 95% of trails open at the same point last season and compared to 65% of trails open even during the very challenging 2011/2012 ski season." Despite the conditions, Katz said that its Tahoe resorts have done an "admirable job" in maximizing the open terrain and maintaining "high levels of guest service to differentiate our resorts in that marketplace." At market close on Tuesday, March 11, Vail Resorts was down more than five percent year-to-date. Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.