Dividend-News

Six Flags: New Leadership, 4% Yield, Big Insider Buying

Published Mon, 02 Mar 2020 14:32:10 -0500 on Seeking Alpha

Shares of the amusement park operator have been crushed since late summer on a torrent of bad news, including poor Q4 results.
The company has brought in a new CEO, slashed its dividend, and the stock has seen major recent insider buying.
We take a deeper look at this beaten down name within the paragraphs below.
A man who can laugh at himself is truly blessed, for he will never lack for amusement." - James Carlos Blake, Handsome Harry
Investors in amusement park operator Six Flags Entertainment (NYSE: SIX) have hit hard in recent months on a torrent of bad news. The analyst community started to sour on this name in the late last year/early 2020 as Wedbush, Berenberg, and others reiterated or place Hold/Sell ratings on the stock and, also in many cases, lower price targets on the stock.
Those worries were borne out early this year. On January 10th, the company announced that Q4 revenues would come in at between $259.5 million and $261.5 million, far below the $286 million consensus that existed in the analyst community. In addition, leadership stated that
'Six Flags-branded projects in China have not progressed as expected, citing the macroeconomic environment and the declining real estate market in China, which has caused Chinese partner Riverside Investment to default on its payment obligations'.
And this was before the huge outbreak of COVID-19 in the country. The stock fell nearly 18% on the day of the announcement, the worst daily performance in the stock's history.
Then, on February 20th, the company posted a loss of 13 cents a share for the fourth quarter. Revenues came in at $261 million, within the range of the reduced range given on January 10th. For the year, diluted earnings per common share for 2019 came in at $2.11, a decrease of 35 percent, compared to FY2018.

The shares took a significant hit with the results, especially given the company slashed its dividend massively from 83 cents a share a quarter to just 25 cents a... Read more