Carnival's Q4 Earnings Lift Cruise Stocks

Shares of Carnival (LON:CCL) Corporation (NYSE:CCL) jumped on Tuesday morning after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter 2017 earnings, helping lift the rest of the cruise industry, including Norwegian Cruise Line (NASDAQ:NCLH) and Royal Caribbean (NYSE:RCL) .

Carnival reported adjusted Q4 earnings of $0.63 cents per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.50 per share. The company also topped sales expectations and posted revenues of $4.26 billion, which marked over an 8% year-over-year climb.

The most recent quarter also marked the eighth consecutive period that Carnival posted a sales increase. The cruise operator beat full-year revenue and earnings expectations, and the company’s solid fourth-quarter comes after a series of devastating hurricanes wreaked havoc on a many cruise ship hubs and routes.

Carnival’s strong year stems in part from the fact it was able to raise its prices. In fiscal 2017, the cruise company’s ticket prices rose by 4.5%.

Looking ahead, the company noted its prices will be on the rise again in 2018. Furthermore, Carnival announced that its cumulative advanced bookings for 2018 are ahead of the prior year, “at higher prices.”

"Despite booking disruptions from this year's multiple hurricanes, we are still heading into 2018 with a stronger base of business and higher prices than last year,” CEO Arnold Donald said in a statement.

“We have numerous efforts underway to keep the momentum going in 2018 and beyond, from our innovative approaches to increase consideration for cruising, including our recently announced partnership with Univision, to the further roll-out of our state-of-the-art revenue management system.”

What’s more, Carnival announced that it expects to post first-quarter 2018 EPS in the range of $0.37 to $0.41. On top of that, the company now projects it will post full-year earnings in the range of $4.00 to $4.30 per share.

Shares of Carnival surged over 2.50% on Tuesday morning, inching closer to their 52-week high of $69.89 per share. The rest of the cruise industry also saw their shares pop on the back of Carnival’s results.

Shares of Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) gained over 1.50% on Tuesday, while Royal Caribbean (RCL) saw its stock price jump more than 1%.

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