SeaWorld posts weaker-than-estimated Q3 profit

The warning caused SeaWorld’s shares, which have lost half of their value since the release of Blackfish, a film cataloguing alleged mistreatment of whales at its parks, to fall 9% to $17.80 in early trading on Wall Street. On a weekly scale, the price has seen a change of -0.65%. Its earnings growth of almost $11 million came during SeaWorld’s crucial summer quarter, when attendance at the theme parks is at its highest.

That missed the $1.18 average estimate of 12 analysts polled by Capital IQ.

Seaworld reported earnings per share of $1.14 for the third quarter of 2015. The total amount of the transaction was worth $27,000, according to the disclosed information with the Securities and Exchange Commission in a Form 4 filing.

“There’s a fair question to be asked about whether the SeaWorld kind of noise is overshadowing what I think has been a pretty good performance at Busch Gardens”, FBR investment bank analyst Barton Crockett told NPR’s Marketplace this morning. During last six month period, the net percent change held by insiders has seen a change of -2.78%. The company, it added, is seeing a “meaningful reduction in the rate of attendance decline in California”. (NYSE:SEAS).The analysts at the brokerage house have a current rating of Buy on the shares.

But even then analysts said the company could turn it around with a new strategy.

Sheffield Asset Management L.L.C. holds 5.47% of its portfolio in SeaWorld Entertainment Inc for 2.07 million shares. Post opening the session at $20.06, the shares hit an intraday low of $19.74 and an intraday high of $20.18 and the price vacillated in this range throughout the day. With the volume soaring to 1,770,611 shares, the last trade was called at $19.52. The company has a 52-week high of $22.68. As a reminder, we ended 2014 with Adjusted EBITDA of $370.1 million, which included a $10.0 million non-cash pro forma adjustment. (NYSE:SEAS) is $22.68 and the 52-week low is $15.11.

While SeaWorld Entertainment does not break out attendance for individual parks, visitation to SeaWorld San Diego is known because it’s reported as part of its lease with the city, which owns the Mission Bay land where the park sits. The Company is engaged in delivering personal, interactive and educational experiences that blend imagination with nature and enable its customers to celebrate, connect with and care for the natural world.