Carnival CEO says ‘sky is the limit’ after Q2 results

Carnival Corp (NYSE: CCL) is down close to 10% on Monday even though it reported market-beating results for the second financial quarter.

Why is Carnival stock down today?

The cruise operator raised its guidance as well but the stock is being punished because the forecast is still for a loss this year.

Carnival now expects to lose between 8 cents and 20 cents on a per-share basis. Still, CEO Josh Weinstein said today on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street”:

Year-to-date, Carnival stock is still up nearly 80%.

Notable figures in Carnival Q2 results

• Lost $407 million versus the year-ago $1.83 billion
• Per-share loss also narrowed from $1.61 to 32 cents
• Adjusted for one-time items, loss was 31 cents a share
• Revenue more than doubled year-on-year to $4.91 billion
• Consensus was 34 cents a share on $4.79 billion revenue

Is it as good as it gets for Carnival Corp?

Carnival cited continued demand as it reported total bookings to have climbed to a new high in the second quarter. But CEO Weinstein doesn’t expect it to be as good as it ever gets for the cruise line.

Carnival was well ahead of pre-pandemic in terms of pricing in its recent quarter. Other notable figures in the earnings press release include a massive boost to occupancy from 69% to 98%. Passengers carried climbed to 3 million – a 76% increase.

Wall Street currently has a consensus “overweight” rating on Carnival stock.