Vail Resorts' skier visits fell 13.4% and pass sales are down 12%; it still paid $8.88 a share on $4.12 of earnings

Vail Resorts reported net income of $147.5 million for the fiscal year ended July 31, down from $280.0 million a year earlier, and said pass sales for the coming North American ski season are down about 12% in units. The results were released after Monday's close in a filing with the SEC. The fiscal fourth quarter, the off-season, produced a net loss of $190.2 million, wider than $182.4 million a year ago, which the Wall Street Journal highlighted in its headline.

CEO Rob Katz called last winter "one of the most challenging winters in history" for the western U.S. ski industry, with snowfall in the Rockies at or near record lows. Resort Reported EBITDA, the company's main profit measure, fell 11.7% to $745.7 million.

The pass model did its job, for Vail

The key figures sit in the tables, not the headline. Total skier visits fell 13.4%, from 17.7 million to 15.3 million. Yet lift revenue fell only 3.5%, because pass revenue actually rose 3.9%: most skiers had paid before the season started, snow or no snow. Revenue per visit, which Vail calls effective ticket price, rose 11.5% to $94.85.

That is the whole argument for the Epic Pass, and it worked. But it protects the lift company, not the town. A ski-rental shop, a bar at the base area, a snowmobile tour outfit or a lodge in a town like Park City gets paid only when people show up. Vail's own numbers say about 2.4 million fewer skier visits happened last season. Those were lost sales for the businesses around the lifts, with no prepaid pass behind them.

Next season starts smaller

Pass units sold through Sept. 18 are down about 12% from a year earlier, days sold are down about 10%, and pass sales dollars are down about 6%. The gap between units and dollars is price increases and a shift toward unlimited passes. Vail said the decline is concentrated in lower-frequency destination passes, the product bought by visitors who fly in for a few days, and it suggested some of those customers may simply be waiting to buy lift tickets later. That is a hope rather than a figure, and it matters most to lodging and restaurants, since destination visitors are the ones who spend on rooms and dinners.

For fiscal 2027 Vail guided to net income of $158 million to $233 million and Resort Reported EBITDA of $805 million to $865 million. That assumes normal weather, and it assumes visitation "modestly lower" than the company expected for 2026 before last winter went wrong.

The dividend math

Vail kept its quarterly dividend at $2.22 a share, payable Oct. 27. Over the year it declared $8.88 a share against diluted earnings of $4.12, so it paid out more than twice what it earned. Net debt stands at 3.9 times trailing EBITDA, and liquidity was about $0.8 billion at July 31. The company also expanded its cost-cutting program, targeting about $110 million of annualized savings by the end of fiscal 2027.

The stock closed Monday at $138.22, up 1.6%, and traded around $135 after the release, according to Nasdaq data.

Sources: Vail Resorts 8-K; Wall Street Journal; Nasdaq. Visit and payout comparisons are Chronicle calculations from the company's figures. This is market information, not investment advice.