SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: SEAS) stock jumped 1.49% on Thursday to $64.17 against a previous-day closing price of $63.23. With 0.66 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 0.74 million shares. During the session, the Leisure company that operates in wider Consumer Cyclical sector, reached to the highest price of $65.09 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $63.47. The 52-week range on SEAS shows that it touched its highest point at $76.57 and its lowest point at $40.01 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $70.78. Beta for the stock currently stands at 2.01.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of SEAS was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 3.80%, but this was up by 17.59% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 8.52% while six-month performance rose 30.88%. The stock gained 4.99% in the past year, while it has gained 19.92% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for SEAS yields 4.40 with Next year EPS estimates of 4.85. For the next quarter, that number is 0.73. This implies an EPS growth rate of 180.70% for this year and 16.73% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 18.52% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 88.60%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 67.18 million SEAS shares are outstanding with a float of 35.64 million shares on hand for trading. On Oct 13, 2022, short shares totaled 3.36 million, which was 4.97% higher than short shares on Sep 14, 2022. In addition to Mr. Marc G. Swanson as the firm’s Chief Exec. Officer, Mr. G. Anthony Taylor Esq. serves as its Chief Legal Officer, Gen. Counsel & Corp. Sec.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 113.26% of SEAS’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 91.01% of SEAS, in contrast to 51.95% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 23.37%. As the largest shareholder in SEAS with 42.68% of the stake, Hill Path Capital LP holds 27,265,612 shares worth 27,265,612. A second-largest stockholder of SEAS, Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strau, holds 4,969,178 shares, controlling over 7.78% of the firm’s shares. Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. is the third largest shareholder in SEAS, holding 4,602,751 shares or 7.21% stake. With a 1.67% stake in SEAS, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index is the largest stakeholder. A total of 1,068,203 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund, which owns about 1.42% of SEAS stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 905,288 shares valued at 48.44 million. iShares Russell 2000 ETF holds 1.39% of the stake in SEAS, owning 887,995 shares worth 47.52 million.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for SEAS since 10 analysts follow the stock currently. There are 7 analysts who recommend BUY ratings, while 0 suggest SELL ratings. Of the remaining analysts, 2 believe that the stock is worth HOLDING, 1 give it an OVERWEIGHT rating, and 0 thinks that it’s UNDERWEIGHT. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With SEAS analysts setting a high price target of $84.00 and a low target of $60.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $70.78. Based on these targets, SEAS could surge 30.9% to reach the target high and fall by -6.5% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 10.3% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy. SEAS will report FY 2022 earnings on 02/22/2024. Analysts have provided yearly estimates in a range of $4.75 being high and $3.92 being low. For SEAS, this leads to a yearly average estimate of $4.22. The earnings surprise of a firm occurs when the actual results change from the consensus earnings estimate. SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. surprised analysts by -$0.13 when it reported $1.99 EPS against a consensus estimate of $2.12. The surprise factor in the prior quarter was $0.08. Based on analyst estimates, the high estimate for the next quarter is $0.83 and the low estimate is $0.52. The average estimate for the next quarter is thus $0.71.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded SEAS stock several times over the past three months with 10 Buys and 0 Sells. In these transactions, 16,727 shares were bought while 0 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 83 while that of sell transactions has risen to 53 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 358,902 while 303,392 shares were sold.
