The ski industry can have as many ups and downs as it does chairlifts and snow slopes. But over the long run, these companies can provide solid returns for buy-and-hold investors.
“There are reasons to invest in ski companies regardless of the season and regardless of the weather,” says David Loeb, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co.
Despite being in a seasonally driven industry, ski companies can offer higher average returns than large real-estate investments, Loeb says. “The returns that the resorts provide can fund corporate growth and a good dividend,” he says.
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Ski resorts have pricing power because of the broad consumer trend of wanting experiences over things, a relatively fixed supply of new ski resorts and an affluent customer base, says FBR Capital Markets analyst Barton Crockett.
Although investing in skiing isn’t a volume growth play because the number of people who ski is relatively fixed, Crockett says it is a durability story because families keep coming back year after year and pass the winter activity down to their kids.
The industry also has benefited from consolidation, Crockett says. That has been led by Vail Resorts (ticker: MTN), which in October completed a more than $1 billion purchase of Canadian ski resort operator Whistler Blackcomb Holdings.
With a market capitalization of $6 billion, Vail Resorts is by far the largest ski company traded on U.S. exchanges. Next up is Intrawest Resorts Holdings ( SNOW) with a market valuation of $700 million, followed by Peak Resorts ( SKIS) at $60 million.
Vail Resorts. Broomfield, Colorado-based Vail Resorts is focused on growing its season pass network and gaining volume and market share through acquisitions, Credit Suisse analyst Ben Chaiken says.
Its Epic pass network gives Vail synergies that other companies wouldn’t necessarily be able to tap, Chaiken says.
Vail’s assets give people more of a reason to buy its season pass, he says. For example, the pass gives East Coast skiers access to resorts in the West that can become vacation destinations, Chaiken says. Although such a strategy will lead to a slight cannibalization of its high-paying guests — for example, a wealthy family in New York that would still have paid to ski for a week at a Vail resort in the West will now just buy the Epic pass — that will be outweighed by new incremental sales, such as to millennials, Chaiken says.
He adds that the Epic pass is considered a bargain for the variety of quality assets it gives customers. That underpricing means Vail has the ability to raise prices in the future, he says.
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The season pass also gives the company earnings stability because it has people’s money up front, regardless of a poor snowfall year. “Their season pass is everything to their company,” Chaikan says.
Chaiken also praises Vail’s management team and the stock’s 2 percent dividend yield. Investors in Vail tend to be longer-term owners who know the stock well, meaning shares won’t see a massive selloff in a poor-weather season, he says.
Vail’s global footprint of ski resorts also means it is less seasonally affected by variations in the weather in individual parts of its network, Loeb says.
Intrawest Resorts. Compared with Vail, Denver-based Intrawest is more focused on middle-market regional ski resorts that aren’t necessarily destination assets, Chaiken says.
Intrawest is coming off a tough ski season last year, meaning that it should be fairly easy for the company to have a better comparable season this year, he says. The investment case for Intrawest would be that it may improve the quality of its portfolio and become more like Vail over the long term, Chaiken says. It’s more of a turnaround story as it looks to transform its balance sheet.
Peak Resorts. Loeb says Wildwood, Missouri-based Peak Resorts is offering a value experience. The company operates in local markets where families can have affordable ski outings, he says. He has an outperform rating on the company, but he also notes that it is high risk.
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A catalyst for growth would be access to a government-linked finance program that would fund development at the company’s Mount Snow resort, he says. The company’s project has been approved, but the funds have yet to be released, he says.
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3 Ways to Invest in Skiing and Winter Sports originally appeared on usnews.com
