Carnival Corp’s Income Continues Rising

Miami-based cruise company Carnival Corporation & plc delivered record third quarter revenues and earnings, and authorized the replenishment of its USD 1 billion share repurchase program.

Image Courtesy: Carnival Cruise Line

The company’s net income reached USD 1.7 billion for the third quarter of 2018, higher than net income of USD 1.3 billion seen in the same period a year earlier. Revenues for the third quarter were USD 5.8 billion, up from USD 5.5 billion in the prior year.

Share repurchases, covering both Carnival Corporation common stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange and Carnival plc ordinary shares traded on the London Stock Exchange, will take place in the open market or privately negotiated transactions in accordance with applicable laws, rules and regulations, according to Carnival.

“Strong execution delivered the highest quarterly performance in our company’s history, overcoming fuel and currency headwinds. At the same time, our strong cash flow and balance sheet enabled us to accelerate our opportunistic share repurchase program, investing almost USD 750 million in Carnival stock since the beginning of the third quarter, bringing the total investment to USD 4.4 billion in just three years, and leading to the second replenishment of our USD 1 billion repurchase program this year alone,” Arnold Donald, Carnival Corporation & plc President and Chief Executive Officer, said.

Based on the third quarter results and booking strength for the fourth quarter of 2018, the company now expects full year 2018 net revenue yields in constant currency to be up approximately 3.5 percent compared to the prior year, better than June guidance of up approximately 3.0 percent.

The company expects full year net cruise costs excluding fuel per ALBD in constant currency compared to the prior year to be up approximately 1.5 percent, versus June guidance of approximately 1.0 percent, primarily due to the accounting treatment for ships sold during the quarter.

Changes in fuel prices (including realized fuel derivatives) and currency exchange rates are expected to decrease earnings by USD 0.06 per share compared to June guidance and USD 0.18 per share compared to the prior year.

Taking the above factors into consideration, the company expects full year 2018 adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of USD 4.21 to USD 4.25 compared to 2017 adjusted earnings per share of USD 3.82.

“We are on track to achieve double digit return on invested capital in 2018 as we deliver upon our strategy to create demand in excess of measured capacity growth, all while containing costs and leveraging our industry leading scale. Going forward, we remain on a path toward continued growth in earnings and returns, driven to a greater degree by capacity increases as we add more efficient ships, replacing less efficient capacity,” Donald added.