Written by StockNews.com

SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. (NYSE:SEAS) early Tuesday posted much worse than expected first quarter earnings results, amid sharply lower attendance at its namesake parks.

The Orlando-based theme park operator reported a Q1:

• net loss of ($0.72), which was $0.17 worse than the Wall Street consensus estimate of ($0.55) [while]
• revenues fell 15.3% from last year to $186.4 million, also badly missing analysts’ view for $205.59 million....
• [a drop in] attendance to its parks...[of] 14.9% to approximately 491,000 guests, hurt by Easter holiday timing as well as declines at its SeaWorld San Diego park. Meanwhile, Latin America attendance fell by about 24,000 guests year-over-year.

Looking ahead, SEAS forecast:

• 2017 Adjusted EBITDA to range from $330 million to $360 million.

The company commented via press release:

“Our Board and management are intently focused on increasing value for our shareholders.

Looking ahead, our revenue management and cost optimization initiatives, as well as one of the strongest lineups of new attractions we’ve ever offered, give us confidence that we will achieve improved performance in all elements of our five-point plan…

We expect to drive attendance through the continued introduction of fun and meaningful experiences for our guests, and will work to improve ticket yields through increased use of new strategic and tactical pricing initiatives.

We’re very excited about 2017, and look forward to reporting our progress throughout the year.”

...Year-to-date, SEAS has declined -7.29%, versus a 7.68% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

SEAS currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of B (Buy), and is ranked #12 of 16 stocks in the Entertainment – Sports & Theme Parks category.