Merlin share price: Company posts 13 percent rise in annual earnings

Merlin Entertainments (LON:MERL) has reported bumper earnings for the year ended December 28, 2013.

The British operator of visitor attractions including the Madame Tussauds waxworks and Legoland theme parks s announced today that its annual underlying core earnings rose 12.8 percent to £390 million, slightly ahead of market forecasts of £386 million. Group revenue rose 10.9 percent to £1.19 billion and was 6.7 percent higher on a like-for-like basis.

The company, which ranks as the world's second-largest visitor attraction operator behind Walt Disney, reported 10.7 percent growth in the number of visitors to 59.8 million. Merlin revealed that its financial performance was complimented by strong customer satisfaction of over 90 percent.

The group did not declare a dividend, but reiterated that that it intended to adopt a progressive dividend policy, starting from this year’s interim results, due to be published on May 15.

CEO Nick Varney commented on the results,

Merlin, which opened six new ‘Midaway’ or smaller-scale attractions in 2013, said it had a strong pipeline of new sites for this year, including a Sea Life Centre in Charlotte, a Madame Tussauds and Dungeon in San Francisco, a Madame Tussauds in Beijing and Singapore and a Legoland Discovery Centre in Boston.

The group will also start work on a new ‘Midway’ attraction that is due to open next year at County Hall, in London, the first of six Shrek-themed venues under a deal signed this week with DreamWorks Animation.

Merlin share price

Merlin’s share price initially rose after the release of the group’s annual results, but gave back the gains later in the session. As of 10:36 UTC, the stock was 0.89 percent down at 367.70p compared to a 0.42 percent fall in the FTSE 250 index.

Shares in the entertainments group have risen 18 percent since the company floated on London Stock Exchange in November Merlin IPO: Shares surge above 315p float price in debut trading. According to AnalystRatingsNetwork data, two research analyst have a ‘hold’ rating on Merlin and six have it as a ‘buy’. The stock’s consensus rating is ‘buy’ with an average price target of 393.14p.

As of 10:28 UTC, buy Merlin shares at 368.20p.

As of 10:28 UTC, sell Merlin shares at 368.10p.