Vail Resorts Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year Fiscal 2026 Results and Provides Fiscal 2027 Outlook

Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: MTN) reported results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended July 31, 2026, reported season-to-date pass product sales and provided its outlook for the fiscal year ending July 31, 2027.

Highlights

Net income attributable to Vail Resorts, Inc. was $147.5 million for fiscal 2026 compared to $280.0 million in the prior year.
Resort Reported EBITDA was $745.7 million for fiscal 2026 compared to $844.1 million in the prior year, which includes $11 million of one-time costs related to the previously announced resource efficiency transformation plan.
Pass product unit sales through September 18, 2026 for the upcoming 2026/2027 North American ski season decreased approximately 12%, days sold decreased approximately 10% and sales dollars, inclusive of sales and admissions taxes, decreased approximately 6%, as compared to the prior year period through September 19, 2025.
The Company provided its fiscal 2027 outlook, including net income attributable to Vail Resorts, Inc. of $158 million to $233 million and Resort Reported EBITDA of $805 million to $865 million, which includes an estimated $14 million of one-time costs.
The Company declared a quarterly cash dividend of $2.22 per share of Vail Resorts' common stock that will be payable on October 27, 2026 to shareholders of record as of October 8, 2026.

Commenting on the Company's fiscal 2026 results, Rob Katz, Chief Executive Officer said, "This past winter was one of the most challenging winters in history across the western U.S. for the ski industry, which negatively impacted financial performance for the year. Conditions were particularly severe in the Rockies, where snowfall and snowpack were at or near historic lows and significantly below prior record-low seasons, resulting in the most difficult weather environment we have ever experienced. With that backdrop, this past year demonstrated the resilience of our business model and encouraging signs for the future. Our advanced commitment model and cost discipline provided considerable stability, and our investments in talent, technology and our resorts drove record guest satisfaction scores and strong employee engagement, which are critical measures of our success.

"Looking back over the past year and a half, we have taken decisive action and accelerated the pace of change across our business, strengthening leadership, advancing growth initiatives, enhancing the guest experience, and improving operational efficiency. In addition to appointing a new CEO, we have brought on a new Chief Revenue Officer and a new independent board member with hospitality and operations expertise, with an ongoing search for a second director. We refreshed our marketing approach and increased our investment across media, channel strategies, branding and optimization of our products and pricing. We also announced our multi-year Epic Experience growth strategy to further differentiate the guest experience to drive increased guest engagement and loyalty, and the expansion of our resource efficiency transformation plan to deliver an additional $30 million of savings by fiscal 2028."

"While this past season had a challenging weather backdrop, we are encouraged by the early progress we are seeing across these strategies, including strong performance from our new product and pricing initiatives, lift ticket and pass sales trends that are outperforming the industry, increased brand awareness, and exceeding our original resource efficiency plan savings. Looking ahead, our Epic Experience strategy provides a clear roadmap for growth by placing the guest at the center of everything we do, in areas where we can drive clear competitive differentiation. By enhancing, personalizing and reducing friction at every stage of the guest journey, we see a significant opportunity to drive greater visitation, guest spending and loyalty through our differentiated resort network, marketing capabilities, and technology investments."

Fourth Quarter Operating Results

Resort Net Revenue increased $0.9 million, or 0.3%, compared to the prior year primarily driven by strong performance at Grand Teton Lodge Company, partially offset by unfavorable weather conditions in Australia. Australian results were below expectations, as cumulative snowfall in the region during the quarter was approximately 57% below the 10-year average, which pressured visitation and revenue, partially mitigated by the growth in Australian pass sales. North American summer demand was in line with expectations.
Resort Reported EBITDA increased $1.2 million, or 1.0%, compared to the prior year, primarily due to $8.1 million of CEO transition costs incurred in the prior year, disciplined cost management and $4 million lower one-time resource efficiency transformation costs, including $1 million of a timing shift into next year. These benefits were partially offset by weaker performance in Australia due to unfavorable weather conditions, typical cost inflation and increased marketing investments.

Full Year Operating Results

Resort Net Revenue decreased $131.9 million, or 4.5%, compared to the prior year, primarily driven by unfavorable weather conditions that impacted visitation and revenue for both local and destination guests, particularly at the Rockies and Tahoe resorts. Compared to the prior year, total lift revenue declined 3.5%, despite visitation being down 13.4%, primarily as a result of pass revenue increasing 3.9% for the year.
Resort Reported EBITDA decreased $98.5 million, or 11.7%, compared to the prior year, which was primarily driven by weather-related headwinds, and were partially offset by disciplined cost management, $45 million of resource efficiency transformation cost savings, $16.7 million of reduced costs from company-wide performance based management incentive plan expense that were not earned, and $6.2 million favorable EBITDA impact from changes in foreign exchange rates relative to the prior year. These cost benefits were partially offset by an incremental $20 million in marketing investment to support growth in pass sales, lift ticket initiatives and branding.

Season Pass Sales

Pass product units sold through September 18, 2026 for the upcoming North American ski season decreased approximately 12%, days sold1 decreased approximately 10% and sales dollars2, inclusive of sales and admissions taxes, decreased approximately 6%, as compared to the prior year period through September 19, 2025. Results through the Labor Day sales deadline were generally consistent with trends experienced during the spring selling period, when excluding auto-renew, as demand across the industry continued to be impacted by the effects of last season's historically challenging conditions.

Results following the Spring deadline in May showed modest improvement in Colorado and Utah local markets, while weakness remains concentrated among Destination frequency products, especially lower frequency passes. Third-party data continues to show Vail Resorts outperforming the broader industry, especially amongst comparable unlimited products. The Company's recently introduced product and pricing initiatives have continued to generate encouraging results, with relative strength in unlimited pass products compared to lower-frequency product offerings driving improved mix and pricing performance. As unit declines remain concentrated among Destination frequency pass products, the Company believes these trends may reflect delayed purchase behavior among less committed guests rather than fully lost demand, creating an opportunity to recapture visitation through pass sales in the remainder of the selling season and/or lift ticket products during the season, especially given the Company's ability to seamlessly and efficiently market broad-based and resort-specific season passes and lift tickets across all of its channels.

1 Days sold measures an estimate of how many days of access are sold, calculated by assigning a number of days to each pass unit and assumes a blended estimate of 8 days sold to unlimited passes and actual number of access days purchased for frequency products.

2 Pass product sales are adjusted to eliminate the impact of foreign currency by applying an exchange rate of $0.71 between the Canadian dollar and U.S. dollar in both periods for Whistler Blackcomb pass sales.

Fiscal Year 2027 Guidance

The Company is providing its initial guidance for the year ending July 31, 2027 and expects:

Net income attributable to Vail Resorts, Inc. of $158 million to $233 million.
Resort Reported EBITDA of $805 million to $865 million, including approximately $14 million of one-time costs.

Fiscal 2027 guidance reflects a meaningful recovery from the weather-impacted fiscal 2026 season, supported by increased lift ticket visitation, pricing growth, increased guest spending across ancillary businesses and approximately $25 million of incremental efficiencies from the resource efficiency transformation plan. These benefits are expected to be partially offset by lower pass demand trends, the normalization of operating expenses, inflationary pressures, additional strategic investments to support future growth and approximately $14 million of one-time costs.

At the midpoint, guidance implies an estimated Resort EBITDA margin of approximately 26.9%, or approximately 27.3% excluding one-time costs.

Relative to the Company's original fiscal 2026 expectations issued in September 2025, fiscal 2027 guidance assumes visitation is modestly lower with overall lift revenue flat from pricing and product optimization efforts, along with increased marketing investments to drive visitation. As a result, ancillary revenue growth and savings from Resource Efficiency Transformation are not expected to fully offset inflationary pressures, resulting in a lower Resort EBITDA margin than originally expected for fiscal 2026.

The guidance also assumes (1) a continuation of the current economic environment, (2) a range of normal weather conditions for the 2026/2027 North American and European ski season and the 2027 Australian ski seasons, and (3) foreign currency exchange rates as of September 25, 2026 noted below, and does not include any potential impacts related to future fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, which may be impacted by tariffs, trade disputes, or other factors.

Resource Efficiency Transformation Plan

The Company's multi-year Resource Efficiency Transformation Plan remains on track. The Company expects to deliver approximately $25 million of incremental efficiencies in fiscal year 2027, excluding one-time costs, resulting in approximately $110 million of annualized cost efficiencies by the end of fiscal year 2027. The updated fiscal year 2027 outlook reflects the accelerated realization of $5 million from the next phase of its resource efficiency transformation plan due to certain technology transformation initiatives that were previously expected to benefit fiscal 2028, with an additional $25 million of savings in fiscal year 2028 that includes a portion of capital savings. The Company incurred approximately $11 million of associated one-time costs in fiscal 2026 and expects to incur approximately $14 million in associated one-time costs in fiscal 2027.

Liquidity and Return of Capital

Despite difficult conditions in fiscal year 2026, the Company remains confident in its long-term cash flow generation strength and its stable business model.

As of July 31, 2026, the Company's total liquidity as measured by total cash plus highly liquid short-term investments and revolver availability was approximately $0.8 billion.
Net Debt was 3.9 times trailing twelve months Total Reported EBITDA as of July 31, 2026.
The Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $2.22 per share of Vail Resorts' common stock that will be payable on October 27, 2026 to shareholders of record as of October 8, 2026.
The Company reaffirmed its calendar 2026 capital plan of approximately $215 million to $220 million in core capital, consistent with its long-term capital investment guidance. Including growth capital investments, at the Company's European resorts and in support of Resource Efficiency Transformation and real estate planning projects, the Company plans to invest a total of approximately $229 million to $234 million in calendar year 2026.
Regarding calendar year 2027 capital expenditures, the Company is pleased to highlight select planned investments, including two significant lift upgrades at Park City Mountain. The Company plans to replace Silverlode with its first eight-passenger detachable chairlift in the United States, increasing uphill capacity and improving circulation and reliability at a critical on-mountain hub. The Company also plans to replace the existing Eagle and Eaglet fixed-grip lifts with a six-passenger detachable chairlift featuring a revised alignment and mid-station unload, significantly increasing out-of-base capacity and improving guest access, distribution and beginner progression. The Company also plans to complete a full retrofit of the Crescent Lift in Park City to further minimize lift downtime during the season. Together, these three lift upgrades, in addition to the Sunrise Gondola implemented last season and the new Canyons Village Skyway Gondola and base area parking structure, which will be ready for this upcoming season, represent a transformative impact on the uphill capacity for the entire resort and guest experience. The Company expects to provide its full calendar year 2027 capital investment plan in December 2026. The core capital plan is expected to remain consistent with the Company's long-term capital framework, adjusted for inflation, including tariffs, and any incremental capital commitments associated with the updated Grand Teton Lodge Company contract.

https://investors.vailresorts.com/

(1) The provision for income taxes may be impacted by excess tax benefits primarily resulting from vesting and exercises of equity awards. Our estimated provision for income taxes does not include the impact, if any, of unknown future exercises of employee equity awards, which could have a material impact given that a significant portion of our awards may be in-the-money depending on the current value of the stock price. (2) Our guidance includes certain forward-looking known changes in the fair value of the contingent consideration based solely on the passage of time and resulting impact on present value. Guidance excludes any forward-looking change based upon, among other things, financial projections, including long-term growth rates for Park City, as such changes may be material. (3) Mountain Reported EBITDA also includes approximately $28 million of stock-based compensation. (4) Lodging Reported EBITDA also includes approximately $4 million of stock-based compensation. (5) The Company provides Reported EBITDA ranges for the Mountain and Lodging segments, as well as for the two combined. The low and high of the expected ranges provided for the Mountain and Lodging segments, while possible, do not sum to the high or low end of the Resort Reported EBITDA range provided because we do not expect or assume that we will hit the low or high end of both ranges. (6) Guidance estimates are predicated on an exchange rate of $0.71 between the Canadian dollar and U.S. dollar, related to the operations of Whistler Blackcomb in Canada; an exchange rate of $0.70 between the Australian dollar and U.S. dollar, related to the operations of our Australian ski areas; and an exchange rate of $1.21 between the Swiss franc and U.S. dollar, related to the operations of Andermatt-Sedrun and Crans-Montana in Switzerland.