# United Parks & Resorts (PRKS.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/PRKS

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:31:19.751Z. Financial observations: FY2011–FY2026.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $32.75 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

Estimated value: low $53.94 per share, central $61.38 per share, high $71.28 per share. Buy at or below the central value $61.38 per share. Valuation as of 2026-10-16T07:31:19.751Z; scenarios are not confidence intervals.

Expected annual return: 16.4% at the stated quote. About 16.4% a year at today's price (required return 10.0%). required return 10.0% a year (10% floor; US 10-year bond 5.1% + 4 points).

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 6 revenue declines in the last 10 years

- more than 5 revenue declines in ten years

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 6

- Years with a net loss: 2

- Operating margin variation: 1.76×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: 0.06×

- FY2018: 0.13×

- FY2019: 0.18×

- FY2020: -0.56×

- FY2021: 0.29×

- FY2022: 0.29×

- FY2023: 0.27×

- FY2024: 0.27×

- FY2025: 0.22×

- LTM to Jun 2026: 0.22×

### moat: fail

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- Recent gross margin fell 27.5pp below the typical margin (limit 4pp)

- ROIC, median of available years: 12.8%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: 3.7%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: 27.5 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 64.0%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 36.5%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 13.4%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: 4.7%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 5.2%

- FY2017: 3.7%

- FY2018: 7.6%

- FY2019: 9.8%

- FY2020: -11.2%

- FY2021: 25.5%

- FY2022: 23.0%

- FY2023: 20.2%

- FY2024: 21.0%

- FY2025: 15.7%

### economics: pass

- Owner earnings / net income, 5-yr: 0.87×

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: $1.0B

- Net income, five-year total: $1.2B

- Return on incremental invested capital: 71.9%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: 0.1 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: 0.2 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: -1.7%

Chart: Annual owner cash / profit; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: 1.08×

- FY2022: 1.00×

- FY2023: 0.36×

- FY2024: 0.63×

- FY2025: 1.34×

### management: pass

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2016 to 2025 (9 years)

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks leaned toward cheaper years (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: 5.2% vs 20.2%

- Per-share earnings: -0.15 to 3.63 (three-year endpoint medians)

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: -4.4%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: -6.8%

- Market cap gain: $389M

- Cumulative retained earnings: $798M

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: -4.4%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: -6.8%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2016

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2025

- Per-share value change: $3.78

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: -$0.15

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: $3.63

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): 0.58

- Average buyback yield: 5.0%

- Buyback history: 10 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- Acquisition spending: $33M

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: $785M

- ROIC, first three-year median: 5.2%

- ROIC, last three-year median: 20.2%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -$0.15

- FY2017: -$2.36

- FY2018: $0.52

- FY2019: $1.10

- FY2020: -$3.99

- FY2021: $3.22

- FY2022: $4.14

- FY2023: $3.63

- FY2024: $3.79

- FY2025: $3.06

### accounting: pass

- Sloan accruals: -8.1%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 1.14×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 3.2%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Operating cash / earnings: 2.26×

- Accounting red flags: 0

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -12.3%

- FY2017: -18.9%

- FY2018: -11.8%

- FY2019: -11.3%

- FY2020: -7.5%

- FY2021: -9.4%

- FY2022: -11.8%

- FY2023: -10.3%

- FY2024: -9.8%

- FY2025: -8.1%

## Holders

## Price story

Down 56% since Mar 2022 · "PRKS Q3 Deep Dive: Attendance Headwinds, Cost Controls, and New Attractions Shape Outlook" (finance.yahoo.com, Nov 2025) · sales -0.9%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:26.505Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

Price needs cash profits to shrink 7% a year for ten years

- 2025-11-07: PRKS Q3 Deep Dive: Attendance Headwinds, Cost Controls, and New Attractions Shape Outlook ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/prks-q3-deep-dive-attendance-144049821.html))

### Sales · FY2025–2026

sales -0.9%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1564902/000119312526088288/prks-20251231.htm; observed 2026-03-03.

- FY2017: $1.3B 

- FY2018: $1.4B 

- FY2019: $1.4B 

- FY2020: $432M 

- FY2021: $1.5B 

- FY2022: $1.7B 

- FY2023: $1.7B 

- FY2024: $1.7B 

- FY2025: $1.7B 

- FY2026: $1.6B 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 36.5%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1564902/000119312526088288/prks-20251231.htm; observed 2026-03-03.

- FY2016: 25.8% 

- FY2017: 24.5% 

- FY2018: 29.1% 

- FY2019: 34.5% 

- FY2020: 91.5% 

- FY2021: 92.4% 

- FY2022: 92.2% 

- FY2023: 92.4% 

- FY2024: 92.4% 

- FY2025: 36.5% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in leisure; annual sales are USD 1.7 billion.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1564902/000119312526088288/prks-20251231.htm (filed 2026-03-03); FY2025: revenue 1662559000; grossProfit 606540000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 36.5% to 92.4% during 2023–25; it earns 12.8% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-03); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 92.4%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-03); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 92.4%.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1564902/000119312526088288/prks-20251231.htm (filed 2026-03-03); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 36.5%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-03); 10-year return on capital observations [[2016,0.05239372694109672],[2017,0.03698482284257884],[2018,0.07593213088926141],[2019,0.09820568576004653],[2020,-0.11160938597050193],[2021,0.2551647345492136],[2022,0.23007932768436035],[2023,0.20229977694169873],[2024,0.21023797731881913],[2025,0.15702489492233193]]; median 0.12761529034118924. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Can it raise prices

Kept about a 92% gross margin through 2022 cost inflation.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1564902/000119312526088288/prks-20251231.htm (filed 2026-03-03); Gross margin observations: [[2021,0.9239976591542365],[2022,0.9218957312026025],[2023,0.9237240868835453]]; range within 2 percentage points.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 3 of 10 years; bought back USD 16.8 million of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-03); FY2018: growth capex 18815000; upkeep 160955000; owner earnings 44788000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.4200902027328749.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-03); FY2019: growth capex 33188398.135664344; upkeep 162028601.86433566; owner earnings 88004398.13566434. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.3771220397928559.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-03); FY2021: growth capex 0; upkeep 128854000; owner earnings 276319000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-03); FY2022: growth capex 48085000; upkeep 152620000; owner earnings 291190000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.1651327312064288.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-03); FY2023: growth capex 0; upkeep 304836000; owner earnings 83568000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-03); FY2024: growth capex 0; upkeep 248430000; owner earnings 142505000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1564902/000119312526088288/prks-20251231.htm (filed 2026-03-03); FY2025: growth capex 0; upkeep 116965000; owner earnings 225862000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-03); Dividend observations: [[2016,65306000],[2017,1544000],[2018,325000],[2019,0],[2020,0],[2021,0],[2022,0],[2023,0],[2024,0],[2025,0]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1564902/000119312526088288/prks-20251231.htm (filed 2026-03-03); FY2025: cash repurchases 16845000 USD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 2.5% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-15); PRKS.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 2.54 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-15.

### What the price says

The price assumes cash profits shrink 7% yearly over ten years; actual growth was 17.3%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-03); Ten-year compound average after fade. Initial solved rate -0.11118846536834165. Price 32.75; FX 1; discount 0.1; same standard ten-year fade to terminal 0.03. FY2015 owner earnings/share 0.8293925402123725 → FY2025 4.107253914276882. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2016-10: $14.01 per share

- 2016-11: $16.90 per share

- 2016-12: $18.93 per share

- 2017-01: $18.11 per share

- 2017-02: $19.27 per share

- 2017-03: $18.27 per share

- 2017-04: $17.53 per share

- 2017-05: $17.85 per share

- 2017-06: $16.27 per share

- 2017-07: $15.38 per share

- 2017-08: $12.98 per share

- 2017-09: $12.99 per share

- 2017-10: $11.48 per share

- 2017-11: $11.75 per share

- 2017-12: $13.57 per share

- 2018-01: $15.25 per share

- 2018-02: $14.63 per share

- 2018-03: $14.83 per share

- 2018-04: $15.09 per share

- 2018-05: $17.75 per share

- 2018-06: $21.82 per share

- 2018-07: $21.30 per share

- 2018-08: $29.32 per share

- 2018-09: $31.43 per share

- 2018-10: $26.12 per share

- 2018-11: $28.48 per share

- 2018-12: $22.09 per share

- 2019-01: $26.05 per share

- 2019-02: $27.29 per share

- 2019-03: $25.76 per share

- 2019-04: $26.62 per share

- 2019-05: $32.00 per share

- 2019-06: $31.00 per share

- 2019-07: $30.57 per share

- 2019-08: $29.01 per share

- 2019-09: $26.32 per share

- 2019-10: $26.42 per share

- 2019-11: $29.28 per share

- 2019-12: $31.71 per share

- 2020-01: $34.46 per share

- 2020-02: $27.21 per share

- 2020-03: $11.02 per share

- 2020-04: $14.69 per share

- 2020-05: $18.06 per share

- 2020-06: $14.81 per share

- 2020-07: $14.47 per share

- 2020-08: $20.40 per share

- 2020-09: $19.72 per share

- 2020-10: $22.02 per share

- 2020-11: $27.90 per share

- 2020-12: $31.59 per share

- 2021-01: $28.57 per share

- 2021-02: $49.66 per share

- 2021-03: $49.67 per share

- 2021-04: $54.76 per share

- 2021-05: $54.43 per share

- 2021-06: $49.94 per share

- 2021-07: $47.41 per share

- 2021-08: $49.19 per share

- 2021-09: $55.32 per share

- 2021-10: $63.50 per share

- 2021-11: $58.99 per share

- 2021-12: $64.86 per share

- 2022-01: $59.58 per share

- 2022-02: $69.39 per share

- 2022-03: $74.44 per share

- 2022-04: $67.44 per share

- 2022-05: $54.18 per share

- 2022-06: $44.18 per share

- 2022-07: $47.73 per share

- 2022-08: $50.25 per share

- 2022-09: $45.51 per share

- 2022-10: $58.16 per share

- 2022-11: $57.06 per share

- 2022-12: $53.51 per share

- 2023-01: $62.39 per share

- 2023-02: $64.60 per share

- 2023-03: $61.31 per share

- 2023-04: $53.66 per share

- 2023-05: $55.76 per share

- 2023-06: $56.01 per share

- 2023-07: $55.37 per share

- 2023-08: $48.70 per share

- 2023-09: $46.25 per share

- 2023-10: $43.08 per share

- 2023-11: $48.90 per share

- 2023-12: $52.83 per share

- 2024-01: $49.40 per share

- 2024-02: $51.35 per share

- 2024-03: $56.21 per share

- 2024-04: $50.82 per share

- 2024-05: $52.29 per share

- 2024-06: $54.31 per share

- 2024-07: $52.65 per share

- 2024-08: $49.22 per share

- 2024-09: $50.60 per share

- 2024-10: $52.63 per share

- 2024-11: $58.64 per share

- 2024-12: $56.19 per share

- 2025-01: $52.56 per share

- 2025-02: $50.50 per share

- 2025-03: $45.46 per share

- 2025-04: $43.65 per share

- 2025-05: $44.79 per share

- 2025-06: $47.15 per share

- 2025-07: $47.33 per share

- 2025-08: $52.58 per share

- 2025-09: $51.70 per share

- 2025-10: $48.40 per share

- 2025-11: $36.09 per share

- 2025-12: $36.30 per share

- 2026-01: $37.65 per share

- 2026-02: $34.79 per share

- 2026-03: $32.66 per share

- 2026-04: $35.25 per share

- 2026-05: $40.13 per share

- 2026-06: $47.74 per share

- 2026-07: $44.63 per share

- 2026-08: $40.01 per share

- 2026-09: $32.40 per share

- 2026-10: $32.75 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

- FY2017: low $5.82 per share, central $6.61 per share, high $7.66 per share

- FY2018: low $5.72 per share, central $6.50 per share, high $7.53 per share

- FY2019: low $6.30 per share, central $7.15 per share, high $8.28 per share

- FY2021: low $12.23 per share, central $13.56 per share, high $14.93 per share

- FY2022: low $17.58 per share, central $19.92 per share, high $23.03 per share

- FY2023: low $24.35 per share, central $30.87 per share, high $35.56 per share

- FY2024: low $32.09 per share, central $43.10 per share, high $50.28 per share

- FY2025: low $46.10 per share, central $52.29 per share, high $60.53 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1564902/000119312526088288/prks-20251231.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-03-03.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.