Ryman Hospitality Q1 Revenues Up 4.5 Percent To $288 Mil.

Neil Blake / Getty Images – Ryman Auditorium
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Hotels and country music continue to be a strong combination. Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc., announced Tuesday its first-quarter revenue of $288 million, up 4.5 percent higher than the same period in 2017. Net income was down 16 percent to $27 million and earnings per share fell 16 percent to $0.53.

Shares of Ryman were down 2 percent in Tuesday morning trading. According to Thomson Reuters, analysts expected earnings per share of $ 0.49 from revenue of $283 million. But Ryman’s shares have been trending upward, however, and are 33 percent above the 52-week high of $57.78 reached in September.

Ryman’s formidable entertainment portfolio is a complementary collection of entertainment properties, including the 4,400-capacity Grand Ole Opry House, WSM-AM station in Nashville, and the 2,300-seat Ryman Auditorium, the Pollstar Theater of the Year for the past eight years. Ryman, a real estate investment trust, specializes in destination hotels. It owns four upscale, meetings-focused resorts totaling 7,805 rooms that are managed by lodging operator Marriott

Revenue in the entertainment division rose 6.3 percent to $23 million and operating income was cut by more than half to $1.3 million. Ryman attributed the lower earnings to “a slower than anticipated ramp-up period and higher than anticipated start-up costs related to the recent opening of Opry City Stage in New York City and a shift in the mix of concert events at Ryman Auditorium.”

The Hospitality segment’s revenue increased 4 percent to $265 million. ““As a portfolio, our hotels experienced a strong first quarter, with Gaylord Opryland and Gaylord Palms delivering especially standout results,” chairman and chief executive Colin Reed said in a statement. “Gaylord Texan also delivered solid results despite some one-time costs related to the opening of its rooms and meeting space expansion in May.”

Ryman’s different types of business acts like a pipeline: viewing the television show “Nashville” leads to a stay at one of Ryman’s hotels. A hotel stay at Gaylord Opryland in Nashville can lead visitors to a concert at the Opry House, Ryman or Wildhorse Saloon. Staying at other Gaylord properties will lead some people to take a vacation to Nashville.

Ryman Hospitality Properties is laying the foundation for a spin-off of its successful entertainment division, which would hit the market with global reach, decades worth of industry connections and an ever-growing profit margin.

Ryman Hospitality, which owns the Grand Ole Opry and the Ryman Auditorium, is structured as a real estate investment trust (REIT) and makes most of its money off its hotel properties, which are operated by Marriott. But in recent years, Ryman has been betting big on its entertainment division – renovating iconic venues, launching new country music-fueled clubs and increasingly investing in original music content.