New rides ready to spur Cedar Fair

Article Excerpt

CEDAR FAIR L.P. $72 (New York symbol FUN; Income Portfolio, Consumer sector; Units outstanding: 56.1 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.2; Dividend yield: 4.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cedarfair.com) owns 11 amusement parks, three water parks (one indoor) and five hotels. In the three months ended March 26, 2017, revenue fell 17.3%, to $48.3 million from $58.4 million a year earlier. (Note: Cedar Fair closes most of its parks during the winter, so the first quarter typically accounts for just 5% of its annual revenue.) Losses rose to $1.16 a unit from $0.87. However, Cedar Fair is spending $170 million on new rides this year. That should boost attendance and help push up its earnings by 14.6%, from $3.14 a unit in 2016 to $3.60 in 2017. The stock trades at a reasonable 20.0 times that forecast. The $3.42 distribution yields a high 4.8%. Cedar Fair is a buy. buy…