Carnival Boosts 2014 Outlook As Results Sail Past Estimates

(RTTNews) - Cruise operator Carnival Corp. & plc (CCL, CUK, CCL.L) reported Tuesday a profit for the third quarter that increased from last year, which was weighed down by losses on ship sales and ship impairments. The results also reflected lower operating costs and revenue growth.

Both adjusted earnings per share and quarterly revenues topped analysts' expectation. The company also provided earnings guidance for the fourth quarter, below Street view, but raised earnings forecast for the full-year 2014.

The year so far has been incident free for Carnival. The cruise line had been plagued by a series of mishaps in previous years, including the 2012 Costa Concordia disaster and a 2013 sailing where Carnival Triumph passengers were stranded at sea for five days without working toilets.

"Strong close-in demand and higher onboard spending helped drive significantly better than expected third quarter results and 15 percent year-over-year earnings improvement. Our Asia operations performed particularly well during the quarter, driven by a double-digit yield increase in our China program, further solidifying our industry leading presence in this important emerging cruise market," President and CEO Arnold Donald said in a statement.

The Miami, Florida-based company reported net income of $1.25 billion or $1.60 per share for the third quarter, higher than $934 million or $1.20 in the prior-year quarter.

Excluding items, adjusted net income for the quarter was $1.23 billion or $1.58 per share, compared to $1.07 billion or $1.38 per share in the year-ago quarter.

On average, 15 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected Carnival to report earnings of $1.44 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenues for the quarter increased to $4.95 billion from $4.73 billion in the same quarter last year, and topped twelve Wall Street analysts' consensus estimate of $4.93 billion.

For the third quarter, revenues from cruise passenger ticket sales totaled $3.72 billion, up from $3.60 billion last year, and cruise on-board and other revenues grew to $1.08 billion from $987 million in the year-ago quarter.

Donald noted that continental European operations also reported strong yield and profit improvement in the quarter, reflecting continued progress for the Costa brand. In addition, the summer Caribbean product successfully attracted nearly 20 percent more guests than the prior year, reinforcing the popularity of the world's largest cruising region.

Operating costs and expenses for the quarter decreased to $3.65 billion from $3.78 billion in the year-ago quarter, with fuel prices declining 3.5 percent to $650 per metric ton from last year's $674 per metric ton.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Carnival expects adjusted earnings in a range of $0.15 per share to $0.19 per share, while analysts are projecting earnings of $0.21 per share for the quarter.

For fiscal 2014, the company raised its adjusted earnings guidance to a range of $1.84 to $1.88 per share from the prior forecast of $1.60 to $1.75 per share. Street is currently looking for full-year 2014 earnings of $1.75 per share.

Looking forward, Donald stated, "The sustained improvement in booking trends as we have progressed through the year combined with yield increases in the second half of 2014 builds confidence that we will see continued yield growth in 2015 and beyond."

In Tuesday's regular trading session, CCL is currently trading at $40.70, up $0.36 or 0.89% on a volume of 2.86 million shares. In the past 52-week period, the stock traded in a range of $31.44 to $42.31. CUK is currently trading at $40.52, up $0.58 or 1.45% on a volume of 0.27 million shares.

CCL.L is currently trading on the London Stock Exchange at 2,540.00 pence, up 103.00 pence or 4.23% on a volume of 0.75 million shares.