Carnival reports another loss, sales miss

The cruise operator reported another wider-than-expected loss and sales miss, even as capacity increased to 92%, as the shares of Carnival Corp. fell to a post-pandemic low.

The stock CCL, which was the biggest decliner in the S&P 500 index SPX, fell 19.1% in morning trading to break below the previous post-pandemic closing low of $7.97 on April 2, 2020. It was headed for the lowest close since October 1992.

The FactSet consensus for per-share losses was 11 cents.

As available lower days ALBD improved to 92% of total fleet capacity from 17%, but was well below the FactSet revenue consensus of $4.90 billion, the total revenue soared nearly eight-fold, to $4.31 billion from $546 million.

Passenger ticket revenue grew nearly nine-fold to $2.60 billion, but fell short of the FactSet consensus of $3.10 billion, while onboard and other revenue increased sevenfold to $1.71 billion, but was less than expectations of $1.81 billion.

The company reported losses of more than expected in all but one quarter since the second quarter of 2020, which ended in May. Revenue missed expectations for 10 straight quarters.

Chief Executive Josh Weinstein said that we are continuing to close the gap to 2019 as we progress through the year, building occupancy on higher capacity and lower unit costs.

The cumulative advance bookings for the fourth quarter are well below the historical range due to lower prices, mainly due to future cruise credits FCCs, while cumulative advance bookings for 2023 are slightly above the historical range at considerably higher prices.

The ALBDs for the third quarter were 21 million, and are expected to be 22 million for the fourth quarter. For the third quarter of last year, ALBDs were 3.8 million.

Cash used from operations was $344 million, compared to $879 million a year ago, while cash and cash equivalents on the books fell to $7.07 billion from $8.94 billion.

The stock has dropped 63.2% year to date, while the S&P 500 has lost 23.8%.