Theme park Six Flags ($SIX) got shot blocked at the rim by Cedar Fair ($FUN) a few weeks ago over a $4 billion offer to purchase Cedar Point. The rejected pitch now leaves Six Flags with an upcoming earnings call and two starkly different alternative data points: Facebook metrics are down considerably, while everything else seems to be up to all-time heights. What a rollercoaster of data sets here, am I right?
The total number of employees at all Six Flags across the country has essentially doubled in the last two years alone. Likewise, job listings have more than doubled in the last ten months, and 2020 is looking to be a good year to join the company since they're hiring.
And before we get to the bad social media figures, the Twitter following has been ascending like the climb on a wooden coaster. Hopefully, there is no giant nosedive, because we don't want to make such a fun aspect of that ride into a sad analogy.
The Facebook numbers are the only things concerning us. Maybe the youth of today has switched from Facebook to other social media platforms, which is likely the case, but parents still end up booking tickets and trips online for their families. And if fewer people are talking about the park, and potentially going, that means fewer sales. It's been in decline since we started tracking the Talking About count in 2015. Maybe the Twitter following can lessen the impact of the Facebook data.
The likes count is the worst to see, since people have to actively go to their accounts, and dislike Six Flags to stop seeing so many posts about it.
We'll see how Six Flags does during its third-quarter earnings report on Tuesday.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.