Vail Resorts Conference Call Summary

Vail Resorts MTN hosted a conference call Friday morning to report the company's better-than-expected earnings for its second-quarter.

Vail shares have been rising after management spoke in a proud demeanor about the firm's earnings for the quarter, operations and future guidance.

Earnings

• Revenue was $543 million for the third quarter.
• Net income increased 20.8 percent to $117.9 million with an EPS of $3.18 per share.
• EBITDA for the quarter was $228 million, an increase of $33.6 million, or 17.3 percent compared to the same period in the prior year.
• Total Mountain revenue increased by 14.6 percent compared to the prior year.
• Declared a quarterly cash dividend on common stock of $0.415 per share and will be payable on July 8, 2014, to shareholders of record on June 23, 2014.

Operations

• Management cited strong performance in Colorado and improved results in Tahoe leading to an 11.2 percent increase in total visitation this quarter compared to the prior year.
• The increase in Total Mountain revenue was due to the result of an ongoing success in driving spending for our ancillary services including ski school, food and beverage, and retail and rental.
• Management cited Minneapolis and Detroit as the fastest growing destination pass holder markets.
• Announced a notice of redemption for $175 million of its $390 million 6.5 percent senior subordinated notes using available cash on hand. This will reduce the annual cash borrowing costs by $11.4 million before tax, without an impact on net debt.

Future Guidance

• Estimate EBITDA for the full 2014 fiscal year to be between $267 million and $273 million; including $10 million of litigation and integration expenses.
• The increase in guidance is primarily due to the outstanding results the firm saw in Colorado in March and April that exceeded expectations on both visitation and guest spending.
• Management is expecting a loss on extinguishing debt in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 of approximately $10.8 million including a write-off of unamortized debt issuance costs related to the debt redemption.
• Estimating net income of $26 million to $33.5 million.