Carnival Cruises Into Success With Record Bookings And Strong Q4 Earnings

Carnival Corp CCL stock surged on Friday after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter 2024 results.

The company reported fourth-quarter adjusted EPS of $0.14, compared to a $0.07 loss a year ago, and beating the consensus estimate of $0.08.

Carnival reported quarterly sales growth of 10% year-over-year to $5.938 billion, marginally beating the street view of $5.932 billion.

The company registered an operating income of $561 million, up 46.1% YoY. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter stood at $1.22 billion, up 28.9% YoY, and margin expanded to 20.6%.

Carnival reported record booking volumes for 2025 and 2026 despite lower inventory and seasonal slowdowns. With nearly two-thirds of 2025 already booked, the company expects another year of strong yield improvement. The company ended the quarter with $4.155 billion of liquidity.

“We are delivering long-term value for our shareholders through improved operational execution across our brands, essentially on a same ship basis. We ended 2024 with adjusted ROIC of 11 percent, comfortably above our cost of capital. In fact, with one year down, we’re already over 80 percent of the way toward achieving our 2026 SEA Change EBITDA and adjusted ROIC targets,” commented Carnival Corporation & plc’s Chief Executive Officer Josh Weinstein.

Q1 2025 Outlook: Carnival expects net yields to be up approximately 4.6% YoY and Adjusted cruise costs, excluding fuel per ALBD, to rise 3.4% YoY, both in constant currency.

The company sees Adjusted EPS of $0.00 for the quarter versus $0.01 loss consensus.

2025 Outlook: Carnival projects net yields (in constant currency) up approximately 4.2% YoY.

CCL sees adjusted EPS of ~$1.70 versus consensus of $1.74 for the fiscal. Fuel consumption of 2.9 million metric tons at an average cost of $617 per ton, resulting in a total fuel expense of $1.89 billion

The company projects cruise costs per ALBD (excluding fuel) to rise 3.7% due to dry-docks, advertising, and Celebration Key, with adjusted net income of $2.3 billion (+20%), adjusted EBITDA of $6.6 billion, and an adjusted ROIC of 11.7%.

Price Action: CCL shares are trading higher by 2.98% at $25.93 at the last check Friday.

Image via Carnival Corporation.