Investing.com - Vail Resorts rallied on Friday on better-than-expected guidance and earnings as favorable weather and bullish spring sales boosted performance.
Vail Resorts (NYSE:MTN) reported fiscal third-quarter earnings of $7.24 a share, above expectations from Investing.com for earnings of $7.09 a share. Revenue of $958 million was just below expectations for $959 million. Its shares rallied 8.7%.
Lift revenue, a closely watched metric, rose 16.4%, thanks to stronger pass sales coming into the season and greater attendance by visitors without passes.
The company reported a 14.3% increase in visitation for the quarter, underpinned by a long ski season that helped drive extra traffic to the company's resorts.
"Our Colorado, Utah, and Tahoe resorts experienced strong local and destination visitation throughout the third fiscal quarter," CEO Robert Katz said in a statement.
That was driven by "favorable conditions across the western U.S., which also allowed for an extension of the ski season for select resorts in Colorado and Tahoe," Katz added.
Following the strong end to the skiing season, Vail touted optimism for the coming quarter, raising its profit expectations.
For fiscal 2019, the mountain resort operator expects net income of $277 million to $297 million, against $268 million to $300 million previously. That is above Capital IQ estimates for net profit of $290 million for the year. Earnings (EBITDA) for the full fiscal year are expected to be between $700 million to $710 million.