Forensic Analysis · Amusement & Recreation · as of Nov 8, 2026

Vail Resorts Inc (MTN)

A forensic read on Vail Resorts Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.

D · Weak — demands caution

Forensic grade

Distress

Financial health

0.6

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

44.4%

ROE

-4.3%

Revenue growth

This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.

Vail Resorts Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 0.6, placing it in the Distress zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.

What the filings flag

7.4%

FY2026

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 7.4% in the latest fiscal year, against 8.2% in FY2024, having run between 7.4% and 9.7% across FY2024–FY2026 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $355M in FY2024 and $316M in FY2026, with operating income at 16.9% of revenue in FY2024, 18.9% in FY2025 and 14.8% in FY2026. The capital base behind it went from $4.3B in FY2024 to $4.3B in FY2026 (-1%), while the revenue it carried went from $2.9B to $2.8B.

146% of FCF

FY2026

Shareholder returns. Returned $362M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 146% of free cash flow, but 76% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow, with the gap funded by debt or cash reserves rather than the cash the business itself throws off; the payout itself is still covered by operating cash. Counting the $28M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 157%.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$2.84B

Revenue Growth YoY-4.3%

Revenue CAGR (2yr)-0.8%

Net Margin5.2%

Free Cash Flow$248.0M

Return on Equity44.4%

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Nov 8, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.

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