Six Flags plumets on quarterly results

Theme park operator Six Flags Inc. said Friday its quarterly profit fell sharply, and it forecast lower-than-expected full year revenue, sending its stock to a 10-year low.

Six Flags, the world's largest regional amusement park operator, has been selling off parks and trying to make the remaining ones more family friendly, but it said on Friday bad weather and an accident on one of its rides kept some people away during the busy summer season.

Six Flags fell 44 cents, or 16 percent, to $2.25 at 4:02 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the lowest price since June 1995. It's the biggest decline since July.

"Two-thousand-eight is going to be the deciding factor for Six Flags," said Zvi Rhine, director at Boone Capital Management LP in New York, which owns the company's stock and bonds. "It's literally a make or break year for them."

Six Flags, which has 21 amusement parks across the U.S., including Great America in Gurnee, reported a third-quarter net profit of $84.2 million, or 61 cents per share, compared with $159.3 million, or $1.08 per share, a year ago. The year-ago period included a one-time gain of $36.8 million from discontinued operations.

Revenue fell 2 percent to $465.2 million, which the company blamed on bad weather in July cutting attendance at its Texas and Georgia parks and bad publicity after a 13-year-old girl's feet were severed on a ride at its Kentucky park in June.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Shapiro has tried to boost attendance by catering to families instead of teenagers. The company, with $2.25 billion in long-term debt, hasn't reported an annual profit in almost nine years. Attendance fell 3 percent in the latest quarter to 12 million visitors.

"We like the approach; it's just unclear if it was implemented in time," said Kit Spring, a Denver-based analyst with Stifel Nicolaus & Co. He has a "hold" recommendation for the shares.

The company said its overhaul was still on track, but forecast revenue of only $965 million to $970 million this year, well below Wall Street's average forecast of $998.75 million.

It also expects to take a charge of about $30 million in the fourth quarter as it gets rid of old or inefficient rides at its theme parks.