Six Flags
Six Flags' revenue rose 14.4% to $3.1 billion in fiscal 2025. Its operating margin was −44.4%, down from 11.5% a year earlier. Free cash flow was −$152 million, against $53 million a year earlier. The diluted share count rose 33.8%.
Operating margin is operating income as a share of revenue. Free cash flow is cash from operations minus capital spending. Return on capital is after-tax operating income as a share of the money invested in the business: debt plus equity, minus cash. Market cap is the last closing share price times the latest diluted share count, so it is approximate. P/E is the last close divided by diluted earnings per share over the last four quarters, or the latest fiscal year where the quarters aren't available; there is none when the company made a loss.
What Six Flags does
Six Flags runs amusement parks, water parks and resorts. It says it is North America's largest regional amusement park operator, with 26 amusement parks, 15 separately gated water parks and nine resort properties. Of its 41 amusement and water parks, 37 are in the United States, two are in Mexico and two are in Canada. They include Cedar Point, Knott's Berry Farm, Kings Island, Canada's Wonderland and parks branded Six Flags or Hurricane Harbor. Its most important customers are families and young people ages 12 through 24.
Six Flags makes money from park admissions, from food, merchandise and games, from places to stay and from other extra-charge products. The business is seasonal: approximately 70% of its 2025 attendance and revenue came in the second and third quarters. It also manages Six Flags Qiddiya City in Saudi Arabia for fees, without having to invest capital in the park. It holds licenses to use certain Warner Bros. and DC Comics animated characters and the Peanuts characters in its parks. It competes for people's spending with other amusement parks and with other entertainment, such as movies, sporting events, restaurants and vacation travel.
The company brings together the former Cedar Fair and Six Flags businesses, which merged. As of December 31, 2025, it employed approximately 4,225 full-time employees, a reduction of approximately 15% from the combined number a year earlier after post-merger efficiency efforts. In 2025 it also employed approximately 91,000 seasonal and part-time employees, many of them high school and college students.
Its biggest risks, as it describes them
- Failing to combine the former Six Flags and Cedar Fair businesses successfully or to get the benefits it expected from the merger.
- High fixed costs that can sharply cut profits if fewer people visit than expected.
- Bad or extreme weather keeping visitors away, made worse by the short operating season at most of its parks.
- Accidents or other incidents at its parks that could reduce attendance.
- Construction delays, long ride downtime or unplanned park closures that cut revenue.
Charts show fiscal years, from the 10-K filings.
Revenue and margins
Net income and earnings per share
Six Flags lost money in fiscal 2025: a net loss of $1.6 billion.
Returns on capital
Cash flow
Payouts and share count
Valuation
Two ways to value Six Flags yourself, both starting from its filings: a discounted cash flow model and the price-to-earnings method.
Discounted cash flow (DCF)
A discounted cash flow (DCF) model values a business as the cash it may generate in future, discounted back to today. The starting figures come from Six Flags' 10-K (or, for net cash and shares, its latest 10-Q) and the assumptions are yours: start from one of three example scenarios, then change any figure to see what it implies for a share, and how that compares with the last share price.
Value per share on three example scenarios, from Six Flags' 3-year average free cash flow of $2M, net cash of −$5.1B at December 31, 2025 and 101 million diluted shares, from its filings. The scenarios are fitted to Six Flags: the base scenario's growth in years 1 to 5 is its revenue growth over the last 3 years, 19.5% a year; the cautious and optimistic ones are lower and higher, and growth in years 6 to 10 is halfway to the long-run rate. The base scenario's discount rate is 11%: 9% for a business of moderate risk (Leisure Facilities), plus 1 point as a smaller company, worth $713M, plus 1 point for unsteady results (a loss in fiscal 2025); the cautious and optimistic ones use a point more and a point less. Select one to load it into the calculator. These are the model's arithmetic on those assumptions, not a forecast or a price target. A negative value means Six Flags' net debt is larger than what that scenario's cash flows are worth today.
- Last close, October 26, 2026
- $7.01
- Value on these assumptions, against the last close
- —
- Cash flows in years 1 to 10, valued today
- —
- Everything after year 10, valued today
- —
- Plus net cash
- —
- Share of value from after year 10
How the value changes with two assumptions
Price-to-earnings (P/E) method
Another common way to value a company is to multiply its earnings per share by a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple: the number of years of today's earnings an investor pays for a share. A higher multiple usually means investors expect earnings to grow. Choose a multiple, for example from similar companies, to see the value it gives.
The P/E method needs positive earnings, and Six Flags' latest diluted earnings per share were negative or zero.
Balance sheet
| Fiscal year end | FY21 | FY22 | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash and short-term investments | 61 | 101 | 66 | 83 | 91 |
| Debt incl. finance leases | 2,519 | 2,268 | 2,276 | 4,726 | 5,167 |
| Net debt (negative means net cash) | 2,458 | 2,167 | 2,210 | 4,642 | 5,076 |
| Net debt to EBITDA | 8.3x | 3.2x | 4.8x | 7.4x | — |
| Debt to equity | — | — | — | 2.3x | 9.4x |
| Interest coverage | 0.8x | 3.4x | 2.2x | 1.3x | −4.1x |
| Current ratio | 0.7x | 0.6x | 0.5x | 0.4x | 0.7x |
| Quick ratio | 0.6x | 0.5x | 0.4x | 0.3x | 0.6x |
Insider trades
Over the 12 months between October 27, 2025 and October 26, 2026, 4 insiders bought $6.4 million of Six Flags shares on the open market, and none sold any.
| Date | Insider | Trade | Shares | Price | Value | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 12, 2026 | John T ReillyPresident & CEO, Director | Bought plan | 15,713 | $15.80 | $248,265 | Form 4 |
| Jun 15, 2026 | Rehan JafferDirector | Bought | 125,000 | $23.41 | $2.9 million | Form 4 |
| Jun 12, 2026 | Rehan JafferDirector | Bought | 125,000 | $23.69 | $3.0 million | Form 4 |
| May 21, 2026 | Marilyn G SpiegelDirector | Bought | 2,500 | $19.10 | $47,750 | Form 4 |
| May 12, 2026 | Richard M HaddrillExecutive Chair, Director | Bought | 10,000 | $19.08 | $190,800 | Form 4 |
| May 12, 2026 | Marilyn G SpiegelDirector | Bought | 2,500 | $19.13 | $47,825 | Form 4 |
Piotroski F-score
The F-score counts how many of nine simple tests of profitability, funding and efficiency a company passed in a year (Piotroski, 2000). The more tests passed, the stronger the year: 8 or 9 is strong, 0 to 2 weak. Companies that report no gross profit are scored on the other eight.
| Test | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net income is positive | Pass | Fail | Fail |
| Cash from operations is positive | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Return on assets rose | Fail | Fail | Fail |
| Cash from operations exceeds net income | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Debt fell relative to assets | Fail | Pass | Pass |
| Current ratio rose | Fail | Fail | Pass |
| Share count didn't rise | — | Fail | Fail |
| Gross margin rose | Pass | Pass | Fail |
| Revenue rose relative to assets | Pass | Pass | Fail |
| F-score | — | 5 of 9 | 4 of 9 |
| Accruals ratio | −9.0% | −10.6% | −22.8% |
Compare
Put Six Flags side by side with any other company we cover: revenue, growth, margins, cash flow and returns, with ten years of charts.
Similar companies
| Company | Year | Revenue growth | Operating margin | Free cash flow margin | Return on capital | Net debt to EBITDA | F-score | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Six Flags | FY25 | 14.4% | −44.4% | −4.9% | −17.6% | — | 4 | |
| Life Time Group | FY25 | 14.3% | 16.1% | −0.7% | 8.5% | 1.7x | 8 | Compare |
| United Parks & Resorts | FY25 | −3.6% | 22.0% | 9.8% | 16.1% | 4.0x | 6 | Compare |
| Planet Fitness | FY25 | 12.1% | 29.8% | 19.2% | 18.4% | 3.7x | — | Compare |
| OneSpaWorld | FY25 | 7.4% | 8.5% | 7.1% | 12.7% | 0.6x | 6 | Compare |
10 years of figures
| Fiscal year | FY16 | FY17 | FY18 | FY19 | FY20 | FY21 | FY22 | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | ||||||||||
| Revenue | 1,289 | 1,322 | 1,348 | 1,475 | 182 | 1,338 | 1,817 | 1,799 | 2,709 | 3,100 |
| Revenue growth | 4.3% | 2.6% | 2.0% | 9.4% | −87.7% | 637.1% | 35.8% | −1.0% | 50.6% | 14.4% |
| Gross profit | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1,653 | 1,639 | 2,476 | 2,831 |
| Research and development | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Operating income | 317 | 295 | 290 | 309 | −572 | 148 | 520 | 306 | 310 | −1,375 |
| Net income | 178 | 216 | 127 | 172 | −590 | −48 | 308 | 125 | −231 | −1,599 |
| Diluted EPS (US$) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 2.42 | −3.22 | −15.89 |
| Diluted shares (millions) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 52 | 75 | 101 |
| Cash flow | ||||||||||
| Cash from operations | 358 | 331 | 351 | 403 | −416 | 201 | 408 | 326 | 373 | 328 |
| Capital expenditure | 161 | 188 | 190 | 331 | 129 | 59 | 183 | 220 | 321 | 480 |
| Free cash flow | 198 | 143 | 161 | 72 | −546 | 142 | 224 | 105 | 53 | −152 |
| Dividends paid | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Share buybacks | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 187 | 74 | 0 | 0 |
| Acquisitions | 0 | 0 | 0 | 270 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 152 | 0 |
| Stock-based compensation | 12 | 13 | 11 | 12 | −0 | 15 | 21 | 23 | 64 | 64 |
| Balance sheet at fiscal year end | ||||||||||
| Cash and short-term investments | 123 | 166 | 105 | 182 | 377 | 61 | 101 | 66 | 83 | 91 |
| Debt incl. finance leases | 1,537 | 1,660 | 1,658 | 2,146 | 2,954 | 2,519 | 2,268 | 2,276 | 4,726 | 5,167 |
| Total assets | 1,973 | 2,064 | 2,024 | 2,581 | 2,693 | 2,313 | 2,236 | 2,240 | 9,130 | 7,799 |
| Total liabilities | 1,970 | 2,068 | 1,992 | 2,591 | 3,360 | 3,012 | 2,828 | 2,824 | 7,089 | 7,249 |
| Shareholders' equity | 60 | 83 | 32 | −10 | −666 | −698 | −592 | −583 | 2,042 | 550 |
| Margins and ratios | ||||||||||
| Gross margin | — | — | — | — | — | — | 91.0% | 91.1% | 91.4% | 91.3% |
| Operating margin | 24.6% | 22.3% | 21.5% | 21.0% | −315.1% | 11.1% | 28.6% | 17.0% | 11.5% | −44.4% |
| Net margin | 13.8% | 16.3% | 9.4% | 11.7% | −325.1% | −3.6% | 16.9% | 6.9% | −8.5% | −51.6% |
| Free cash flow margin | 15.3% | 10.8% | 11.9% | 4.9% | −300.5% | 10.6% | 12.3% | 5.8% | 1.9% | −4.9% |
| Return on capital | 15.8% | 20.2% | 14.8% | 14.0% | −23.4% | 6.4% | 25.8% | 13.8% | 3.7% | −17.6% |
| Return on equity | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | −31.7% | −123.4% |
| Return on assets | 9.0% | 10.7% | 6.2% | 7.5% | −22.4% | −1.9% | 13.5% | 5.6% | −4.1% | −18.9% |
| Net debt to EBITDA | 3.1x | 3.3x | 3.5x | 4.1x | — | 8.3x | 3.2x | 4.8x | 7.4x | — |