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Carnival Corp.'s second quarter profit was better than expected on higher yields and "robust" onboard spending, despite fuel and currency headwinds, but the company reduced its third quarter guidance, and shares dipped as much as 10% at market open Tuesday.
Q2 adjusted net income of $569m was more than 20% higher than the year before. Adjusted earnings of 41 cents per share were higher than Wall Street's 34-cent expectation. Revenues reached a record $6.7b, in line with the consensus forecast. Record net yields in constant currency were up 2.2%.
Cruise costs per available lower berth day increased 6%, driven by higher fuel prices. Adjusted cruise costs excluding fuel per ALBDwere in line with the prior year due to "sharpened cost discipline." Fuel consumption per ALBD was down 5.6%, which helped partially mitigate a nearly 30% increase in fuel prices.
"We achieved another quarter of record results, marking our 12th consecutive quarter of record net yields and delivering over 20% more to the bottom line, overcoming extreme geopolitical headwinds and nearly 30% higher fuel costs. Continued commercial execution and a step up in our cost efficiency efforts enabled us to exceed our March guidance by $100 million," Carnival Corp. CEO Josh Weinstein said.
The company's booked position for the second half is higher than last year, at historically high prices, in constant currency. This, despite navigating more than a full quarter of "extreme geopolitical volatility" that primarily impacted booking trends for European deployments, particularly in the Mediterranean.
"For those deployments, we leaned into the substantial occupancy advantage we had strategically built to deliberately prioritize pricing integrity," Weinstein said, adding Carnival is now 93% booked for the year with less inventory remaining for sale than this time last year. The company is track for record net yields in the second half of 2026, he added.
The company now forecasts net yields in current dollars to be up 3.2% for the year, compared to record 2025 levels, or up 1.75% in constant currency (this is lower than the up 2.75% in March guidance) or up 2.25% after reflecting the impact of the summer 2025 close-in decision to redeploy away from the previously planned Q1 2026 Arabian Gulf voyages and the impacts of loyalty program accounting for Carnival Cruise Line. The March guidance had been for up approximately 3.25% with these caveats.
Carnival's full-year earnings forecast goes to $2.22, a penny above its March guidance but a penny below Wall Street's expectation.
"Looking further out, demand for 2027 and beyond remains strong. Since March, booking volumes and prices for these future sailings have been running ahead of prior year levels, including a substantial increase in bookings for our European deployments next year," Weinstein said. The booking curve remains the furthest out it has ever been.
Customer deposits reached an all-time high of $9b on flat capacity growth over the next 12 months, surpassing the prior year's record by over $450m.
Fuente: sea-trade cruise
