On a day when the benchmark S&P 500 index hit a record high, Carnival Corporation's (NYSE: CCL) popping 7% to its highest level in more than 2 years says a lot. As one of the hardest hit industries during the COVID pandemic, cruise lines have been closely watched in recent years to see if they can get back to pre-pandemic levels.
So far, though they've managed some solid runs, this has proved an elusive goal, but there's an argument to be made that some cruise stocks, and Carnival in particular, have never looked more likely to do it. Let's jump in and take a look at some of the reasons behind this.
Strong Fundamental Performance
For starters, there's the company's most recent earnings report, which came out just two weeks ago. Off the bat, Carnival absolutely crushed it. The company's top-line revenue figure was up more than 15% on the year and well ahead of expectations. It was one of their highest quarterly revenue prints ever and keeps the company on track to close out the year with its highest-ever turnover.
Carnival's bottom line EPS also came in hot and was 10% higher than the consensus, which helped drive operating income to ...
