Carnival stock jumps after company announces better-than-expected 2019 earnings
Carnival Corp. stock jumped 7.63% Friday, closing at $50.21 per share, after the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings.
The company reported a net income of $423 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, despite a significant lull in travel demand in Europe. In September, the company warned that booking volumes and prices were lagging for the first half of 2020. Now, the company said bookings for 2020 are ahead of 2019, though at slightly lower prices.
Around the time the company announced its earnings, two of its ships collided at the port in Cozumel, Mexico. Six passengers reported minor injuries. The collision didn’t appear to affect the company’s stock price.
Carnival faced other difficulties in 2019, including the Trump administration’s ban on cruises to Cuba and its $20 million settlement in a federal court in Miami for violating probation in its pollution case.
“Despite the negative impacts from the tail effect of the high number of unusual events in 2019, as well as a continuation of the negative headwinds facing our Continental European source markets, our brands continue to perform and we are at record booked occupancy levels for 2020 on peak capacity growth,” said Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald in a statement.
Total revenues for 2019 were $20.8 billion, a record, higher than $18.9 billion for 2018, the company reported. The upswing means Carnival stocks are also higher now than one year ago.
This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 5:33 PM.
