2-Star Stocks Poised to Plunge: Cedar Fair?

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Based on the aggregated intelligence of 130,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, amusement park operator Cedar Fair, (NYSE: FUN) has received a distressing two-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Cedar Fair's business, and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Cedar Fair facts

Headquarters (founded)

Sandusky, Ohio (1983)

Market Cap

$517.66 million

Industry

Leisure facilities

Traling-12-Month (TTM) Revenue

$996.23 million

Management

Chairman/CEO Richard Kinzel
CFO Peter Crage

Return on Equity (average, last three years and TTM)

7.4% and 2.9%

Competitors

Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS)
Six Flags (NYSE: SIX)

CAPS members bearish on FUN also bearish on

General Motors (NYSE: GM)
Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL)

CAPS members bullish on FUN also bullish on

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ)
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC)

Sources: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, and Motley Fool CAPS.

Over on CAPS, fully 20 of the 91 All-Star members who have rated Cedar Fair -- some 22% -- believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward. Among the entire bearish population are aquabat63 and spartankicker15.

In late January, aquabat63 wrote that Cedar Fair "has made some really lousy business decisions in the past five years or so. Their investment in [Geauga Lake] was an absolute debacle and their love affair with huge coasters is catching up with them." Our CAPS member continues: "We all love big steel coasters, but they cost tens of millions of dollars to construct, and their aggressive approach is catching up with them."

In a pitch from November, spartankicker also taps the stock as a dangerous, high-debt ride into darkness:

Long-term debt is very, very heavy for such a consumer-related product. The purchase of the Paramount Parks from Viacom is weighing them down and they're going to start burning their cash reserves. Six Flags did the same thing in the late 90's through early this decade and look where they sit now.

What do you think about Cedar Fair, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 130,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.

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Fool contributor Brian Pacampara owns no position in any of the companies mentioned. Walt Disney is a Motley Fool Inside Value and Stock Advisor recommendation. Johnson & Johnson is a choice of Income Investor. The Fool's disclosure policy always gets a perfect score.

Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

  • Report this Comment On March 24, 2009, at 2:04 PM, phalkor wrote:

    old news, priced in already. If they haven't been torpedoed yet, when will they be? People will not stop going to amusement parks this summer. Their main competition is not Disney, it's Six Flags. Six Flags has claim to the worst customer service in the industry and turned all of it's parks into dirty slums. Cedar Fair's parks are leaps ahead in service and cleanliness.

    Love affair with steel coasters? Ok, I'll buy that, but what other than frickin' fantastic coasters gets people to pay 40-50 bucks to spend a day at one of these places. Cedar Fair is the only chain of regional (not destination, DIS) parks that can and will survive.

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