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Don't Take a Position in Carnival Stocks Without Knowing Its Fundamentals!

Now trading at a price of $32.48, Carnival has moved 3.6% so far today.

Carnival returned gains of 85.3% last year, with its stock price reaching a high of $32.8 and a low of $15.07. Over the same period, the stock outperformed the S&P 500 index by 68.6%. More recently, the company's 50-day average price was $30.03. Carnival Corporation & plc, a cruise company, provides leisure travel services in North America, Australia, Europe, and internationally. Based in Miami, FL, the Large-Cap Consumer Discretionary company has 115,000 full time employees. Carnival has not offered a dividend during the last year.

The Company Has a Highly Leveraged Balance Sheet and a Declining EPS Growth Trend:

2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Revenue (M) $20,825 $5,595 $1,908 $12,168 $21,593 $25,021
Operating Margins 16% -158% -372% -36% 9% 14%
Net Margins 14% -183% -498% -50% 0% 8%
Net Income (M) $2,990 -$10,236 -$9,501 -$6,093 -$74 $1,916
Net Interest Expense (M) $206 $895 $1,601 $1,609 $2,066 $1,600
Depreciation & Amort. (M) $2,160 $2,241 $2,233 $2,275 $2,370 $2,557
Diluted Shares (M) 692 775 1,123 1,180 1,262 1,398
Earnings Per Share $4.32 -$13.2 -$8.46 -$5.16 -$0.06 $1.44
EPS Growth n/a -405.56% 35.91% 39.01% 98.84% 2500.0%
Avg. Price $47.87 $20.79 $24.05 $17.12 $18.54 $32.52
P/E Ratio 11.03 -1.57 -2.84 -3.32 -309.0 21.68
Free Cash Flow (M) $46 -$9,921 -$7,716 -$6,610 $997 $1,297
CAPEX (M) $5,429 $3,620 $3,607 $4,940 $3,284 $4,626
EV / EBITDA 8.31 -4.46 -4624.31 -25.68 12.74 11.58
Total Debt (M) $11,271 $24,274 $33,891 $38,008 $33,428 $29,751
Net Debt / EBITDA 1.98 -2.23 -5.14 -16.15 7.17 4.66
Current Ratio 0.23 1.22 0.97 0.71 0.46 0.29

Carnival's financial statements include several red flags such as weak operating margins with a stable trend, declining EPS growth, and not enough current assets to cover current liabilities because its current ratio is 0.29. Additionally, the firm has a highly leveraged balance sheet. On the other hand, the company has growing revenues and a flat capital expenditure trend working in its favor. Furthermore, Carnival has negative cash flows.

a Very Low P/E Ratio but Trading Above Its Fair Price:

Carnival has a trailing twelve month P/E ratio of 15.7, compared to an average of 20.93 for the Consumer Discretionary sector. Based on its EPS guidance of $1.72, the company has a forward P/E ratio of 17.5. The -12.3% compound average growth rate of Carnival's historical and projected earnings per share yields a PEG ratio of -1.28. This indicates that its shares are overvalued.Furthermore, Carnival is likely overvalued compared to the book value of its equity, since its P/B ratio of 4.26 is higher than the sector average of 2.93. The company's shares are currently trading 121.9% below their Graham number.

There's an Analyst Consensus of Some Upside Potential for Carnival:

The 22 analysts following Carnival have set target prices ranging from $24.0 to $43.0 per share, for an average of $33.09 with a buy rating. The company is trading -1.8% away from its average target price, indicating that there is an analyst consensus of some upside potential.

Carnival has an average amount of shares sold short because 4.9% of the company's shares are sold short. Institutions own 72.3% of the company's shares, and the insider ownership rate stands at 7.59%, suggesting a large amount of insider shareholders. The largest shareholder is Vanguard Group Inc, whose 11% stake in the company is worth $4,114,030,194.

The above analysis is intended for educational purposes only and was performed on the basis of publicly available data. It is not to be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Any buy, sell, or other recommendations mentioned in the article are direct quotations of consensus recommendations from the analysts covering the stock, and do not represent the opinions of Market Inference or its writers. Past performance, accounting data, and inferences about market position and corporate valuation are not reliable indicators of future price movements. Market Inference does not provide financial advice. Investors should conduct their own review and analysis of any company of interest before making an investment decision.

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