Recent additions in the Carnival fleet include new water slides and better onboard internet capabilities, and Royal Caribbean is pouring millions of dollars into building a new state-of-the-art terminal in Miami. Cruise lines were some of the hardest hit stocks in the market during the pandemic sell-off in early 2020, but they’ve been some of the top performers since the market bottomed. With over a decade of experience writing about the stock market, Karee Venema is an investing editor and options expert at Kiplinger.com. She joined the publication in April 2021 after 10 years of working as an investing writer and columnist at Schaeffer’s Investment Research. In her previous role, Karee focused primarily on options trading, as well as technical, fundamental and sentiment analysis.

The company’s direct competitors include Royal Caribbean Group (RCL), Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH), and Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc. (LIND). It also faces competition from the broader travel and tourism industry, including resorts, casinos, and theme parks. For FY 2021, ended Nov. 30, filling the gap stocks 2021, Carnival reported a net loss of $9.5 billion on revenue of $1.9 billion. Nevertheless, cruise lines tend to have a passionate customer base with plenty of repeat passengers. Over the long term, cruise line stocks may be a good value investment provided you are comfortable with some volatility.

• It operates global cruise lines including its leading Carnival Cruise Line brand, as well as Princess Cruises, Seabourn, P&O Cruises, Cunard, and others.
• Recovery thus far has been uneven, however, and the industry still faces significant challenges stemming from the pandemic.
• Carnival’s long-term debt has more than tripled to nearly $32 billion — and its share count has nearly doubled — since fiscal 2019.
• As of the writing of this article, Carnival is publicly traded on major stock exchanges, allowing investors to buy and sell shares in the company.

Below, we look at the top three cruise line stocks with the best value, fastest growth, and best performance. The cruise line industry is part of the broader travel and tourism industry, focused primarily on providing sea-based vacation experiences. Companies in the industry own and operate cruise ships in various destinations worldwide, offering a variety of itineraries and themed cruises.

A low price relative to intrinsic value can indeed suggest an investment opportunity, but only if the company’s fundamentals are sound or improving. In Steelcase’s case, the declining revenues, EBITDA, and earnings growth suggest that the company’s issues may be more than just cyclical fluctuations. Carnival reported adjusted earnings of 86 cents per share, compared to a loss of 58 cents per share last year. Carnival recorded $6.53 billion in revenue for Q3 2019, prior to the pandemic. Revenue per passenger cruise day (PCD) has already passed pre-pandemic levels in the fourth quarter of 2022, meaning the company is earning more per passenger than it did in 2019. No, individual investors typically buy and sell stocks through brokerage accounts.

With as much knowledge as possible about the cruise ship industry and how well the cruise lines are positioned, well-educated investors have a leg up over other investors. However, it reported better-than-expected earnings in the third quarter of 2022, and other metrics are improving as well. “Load factors,” a measure of the number of booked passengers compared to the number needed to break even on a sailing, reached 96% overall and surpassed 100% on Caribbean sailings, according to a press release.

Facing significant backlash and pressure to address carbon footprints, cruise lines will likely take on even heftier costs to reduce food waste and implement additional sustainability measures. Some are unwilling to give up new-build pipelines, but all are reevaluating operational structures and strategic priorities to sail back to profitable growth. The three major cruise lines, with $74 billion of debt combined, according to Bloomberg, face incoming competition from billionaires and hotels hoping to start their own fleets. Betting on the luxury tier and existing customer loyalty bases, these new entrants will be vying for a chunk of the premium market.

Top Cruise Line Stocks

However, cruise line companies are reporting strong sales for upcoming cruises, which indicates a rebound in demand. But they’ve also had to take on significant debt to get through the pandemic, and revenues aren’t predicted to get back to pre-COVID numbers until 2024. These are the cruise line stocks that had the smallest declines in total return over the past 12 months out of the companies we looked at. Unfortunately, the pandemic has significantly affected Carnival’s financial results. As of mid-2023, the cruise line operator had yet to return to profitability. Through the first six months of the year, the company reported a net loss of $563 million, or $3.02 per share.

Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. Carnival is sailing in the right direction, and that became crystal clear last week when it announced the closing of $500 million in first-priority senior senior secured notes at 7%. It also upsized an earlier offering of a senior secured first lien term loan B facility to $1.3 billion.

CCL Stock

Carnival Corp. (CCL) is one of the largest leisure travel companies in the world. It operates global cruise lines including its leading Carnival Cruise Line brand, as well as Princess is ifs markets a reliable brokerage firm Cruises, Seabourn, P&O Cruises, Cunard, and others. The company operates 87 ships visiting more than 700 ports worldwide and catering to nearly 13 million passengers each year.

The cruise industry consists of all business entities involved with tourism and transport on cruise ships. Cruise industry operations include cruise lines, cruise ship manufacturers and entertainment companies that specialize in cruise ship entertainment. However, the company is righting how to buy omg coin the ship by reducing its debt and improving profitability. Cruise lines will continue to debut new ships in the near term through a balancing act between refinancing debt and improving profit margins. Its net loss per share shrank by 39% since last year, and improved by 60% from 2020.

The company had to take on a lot of debt at high rates and print new shares at low stock prices to make it through the prolonged pandemic shutdown. Carnival’s long-term debt has more than tripled to nearly $32 billion — and its share count has nearly doubled — since fiscal 2019. It will have to do more than just return to prior revenue and margin levels to surpass its pre-pandemic earnings records on a per-share basis.

The company began as Carnival Cruise Line, formed in 1972 by Ted Arison. It made an initial public offering (IPO) of 20% of its common stock in 1987. Carnival Corp. was incorporated in Panama in 1974, while Carnival plc was incorporated in England and Wales in 2000.

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Royal Caribbean booked a record $8.8 billion in revenue in 2017, up 3% from the prior year. Profits also set a new high mark, too, jumping 24% to $1.63 billion, as return on invested capital crossed 10% of sales from 5% a few years earlier. The second-place cruiser Royal Caribbean operates 50 ships through its Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Azamara Club brands. It services many of the same destinations and home ports as Carnival, and its biggest terminal is in Miami, Florida. Like Carnival, Royal Caribbean shares plunged during the COVID bear market.

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You can buy at market price, or place a limit order that lets you dictate the maximum or minimum price at which you’re willing to buy or sell. In the grand scheme of the market, CCL stock is fairly reasonably priced. But if you’d like to buy a fractional share, you have the option to do so with a brokerage account that supports fractional shares.

Exploring the Top 3 Cruise Ship Stocks

All 13 of the major analysts putting out profit targets see Carnival returning to profitability in the current fiscal third quarter that ends this month. Cruise line companies are seeing a strong rebound after years of COVID-related setbacks, with passenger booking rates up industry-wide. Still, just one stock—Royal Caribbean Group—has outperformed the broader market in the last year. Cruise companies are constantly remodeling and upgrading ships to keep up with shifting consumer trends, too.

It’s taken a long time for the cruising industry to start up again in this country. Now Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian are facing another wave of passenger cancellations and a potentially longer itinerary on the way to eventual profitability. When deciding if you should purchase Carnival stock, it’s always a good idea to first assess your financial situation and long-term savings goals. Carnival is a widely recognized company in the travel space, but its stock is still susceptible to volatility. What it comes down to is if you can handle the risk that comes along with a stock like Carnival’s. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH -2.71%) is a hit among casual cruisers and is known for its laid-back atmosphere.

All three management teams have predicted another record operating year in 2019. Whether cruise giants bounce back quickly depends on where global growth rates end up, compared to the expansion rate of industry capacity. Fuel costs make up a significant portion of a cruise trip’s overall cost, and that fact means cruise companies are susceptible to big swings in fuel prices, just as airlines are. A sustained surge in the cost of oil will crimp profitability in the short term, at least until the company can offset it over time through rising ticket prices.