United Parks & Resorts Inc. (PRKS) Stock Price & How to Invest

United Parks & Resorts Inc. (NYSE: PRKS) is the Orlando-based operator most people still know as SeaWorld. It changed its legal name in February 2024 and kept the ticker. Seven brands span 13 parks in seven United States markets, plus a licensed SeaWorld in Abu Dhabi: SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, Aquatica, Discovery Cove, Sesame Place, Water Country USA and Adventure Island, concentrated in Florida, Virginia, Texas, California and Pennsylvania. Revenue splits almost evenly between getting people through the gate and what they spend once inside. In the first half of 2026 admissions produced about $391.6 million and food, merchandise and other in-park revenue about $370.0 million. The company also runs one of the largest marine animal rescue operations in the world, which is central to its brand and to the regulatory and reputational scrutiny it attracts.

The investment picture is a mature business with two crosscurrents. Attendance has been drifting lower (21.2 million guests in fiscal 2025, down 1.8%, and 9.28 million in the first half of 2026, down 3.6% on an Easter calendar shift, weak international visitation and poor weather), while total revenue per capita keeps rising because in-park spending per guest hit records in each of the last several quarters. Trailing twelve-month revenue is roughly $1.65 billion and trailing adjusted EBITDA roughly $585 million, down from $605.1 million in fiscal 2025 and $700.1 million in fiscal 2024. Sitting under that is about $2.29 billion of gross debt against roughly $19 million of cash, which produces a stockholders' deficit of about $617 million and makes book value meaningless as a yardstick. Management has been converting free cash flow into share retirement at an unusual pace, buying back roughly 12.1% of the shares outstanding in the first half of 2026 alone, and Hill Path Capital, whose managing partner sits on the board, now reports beneficial ownership of about 60% of the company.

Attendance is the number that has not cooperated, and the declines have now run through several quarters on a mix of weaker international visitation, weather and calendar shifts, which are not all fixable by management. Per-capita spending cannot rise indefinitely against a shrinking gate, and the parks are highly seasonal with first quarters that typically post losses. Leverage magnifies everything: about $2.27 billion of net debt, a $617 million stockholders' deficit and roughly $19 million of cash mean a weak summer or an unplanned capex cycle would be absorbed by the revolver rather than by reserves. Sesame Workshop sued in the Southern District of New York in March 2026 seeking termination of the Sesame Place license agreement, and the company has moved to dismiss parts of the claim; a loss would affect two branded parks and their attendance. Hill Path Capital's roughly 60% beneficial ownership means minority holders have little practical say over strategy, capital allocation or any eventual transaction, and the free float has been shrinking as the buyback runs.

10 analysts publish price targets on PRKS, averaging $47.80 against a $44.81 price as of August 2026, or +6.7%. The published targets run from $40.00 to $55.00, a moderate spread, and the ratings split 4 buy, 8 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 8 raises and 3 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full PRKS forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on United Parks & Resorts Inc.. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. In-park spending offsetting soft attendance. In-park per capita spending reached a second-quarter record of $39.51 in Q2 2026, up 5.1% year over year, while admission per capita slipped 1.8% to $40.31 on product mix. The most optimistic published target, $55.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. Attendance is the number that has not cooperated, and the declines have now run through several quarters on a mix of weaker international visitation, weather and calendar shifts, which are not all fixable by management. The most pessimistic target, $40.00, is roughly what PRKS is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on PRKS, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see United Parks & Resorts Inc.'s investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (TTM): ~$1.65 billion
• Adjusted EBITDA (TTM): ~$585 million
• Net income / diluted EPS (TTM): ~$134 million / ~$2.51
• Market cap / enterprise value: ~$2.0 billion / ~$4.3 billion
• Net debt / net leverage: ~$2.27 billion / ~3.9x adjusted EBITDA
• EV/EBITDA / P/E: ~7.4x / ~18x

The trailing price-to-earnings ratio of roughly 18 is distorted by the capital structure, because about $130 million of annual interest expense sits between EBITDA and net income while the buyback keeps cutting the denominator. Enterprise value to trailing adjusted EBITDA of roughly 7.4 times is the more informative frame, and it is the one the debt agreements effectively use: measured against last-twelve-month covenant adjusted EBITDA of about $636.9 million, the multiple is closer to 6.8 times and net leverage closer to 3.6 times. Book value is negative (stockholders' deficit of about $617 million, largely a product of years of buybacks), so price-to-book carries no signal here. Shares traded near $45 in late August 2026, inside a 52-week range of $28.77 to $56.95.

Other names that sit close to PRKS: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get PRKS exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so PRKS sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where PRKS fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

PRKS is a slow-growth park business whose equity story is a leveraged buyback: attendance has been drifting lower while in-park spending sets records and the share count falls fast, so the numbers to watch are per-capita spend, adjusted EBITDA and net leverage rather than reported earnings per share.

Whether PRKS is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is PRKS a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the PRKS stock forecast.

For income investors, whether PRKS pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does PRKS pay a dividend? And to weigh PRKS against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: PRKS vs DIS and PRKS vs CMCSA.