Carnival Beats On Earnings And Revenues

Carnival Corporation (CCL – Analyst Report) operates as a cruise and vacation company. The company is one of the largest cruise operators in the world and operates through three segments, North America cruise brands, EAA cruise brands and Cruise Support. Carnival has adopted a strategy to grow beyond its familiar itineraries and capitalize on Asian opportunities.

Strong marketing initiatives have been helping the company to keep its booking strong over the past few years at most of its itineraries, thereby resulting in improvement in revenue yields. Its consistent efforts to reduce fuel consumption have aided the company to generate profits.

Investors should also note the recent earnings estimate revisions for CCL, as the consensus estimate has been almost moving upwards. Moreover, CCL has a decent history in earnings season. Carnival Corp. has delivered positive earnings surprise for four quarters in a row, making for an average earnings surprise of just around 57.8%. However, the company’s revenues have surpassed the estimates in two out of the trailing four quarters.

Currently, CCL has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and have chances of remaining the same following Carnival Corp.’s earnings report which was just released. We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below:

Earnings: CCL beat on earnings. Our consensus earnings estimate called for EPS of $1.63 per share, and the company reported EPS of $1.75 per share instead. Investors should note that these figures take out stock option expenses.

Revenues: CCL reported revenues of $4.88 billion. This beat our consensus estimate of $4.78 billion.

Key Stats to Note: On a constant dollar basis, net revenue yields (net revenue per available lower berth day) increased 4.3%, which was better than the company’s June guidance of up by 2-3%. Gross revenue yields decreased 2.1% in current dollars.

Net cruise costs, excluding fuel per ALBD, increased 1% in constant dollars primarily due to the timing of certain expenses.

The company increased its earnings guidance for 2015 and expects it to be in the range of f $2.56 to $2.60 from the prior guidance of $2.35 to $2.50.

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