Carnival's Stock Higher Following New Agreement With Italian Shipbuilder

Shares of Carnival Corp CCL were trading higher by more than 1 percent on Wednesday and hit a new 52-week high of $55.73 after the company announced plans to purchase four new cruise ships for delivery in 2019 and 2020. Carnival noted that it signed a memo of agreement with Fincantieri S.p.A., an Italian shipbuilder, to build the new cruise ships. Two of the new ships will be built for Costa Asia for use in China, and one will be built each for P&O Cruises Australia and Princess Cruises. Including Wednesday's announcement, Carnival has 17 new ships that are scheduled to be delivered between 2016 and 2020. "We will deliver on our fleet enhancement plan with the construction of these four new, exciting ships that are consistent with our long-term strategy of measured capacity growth over time," Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation said in the company's press release. "These ships will be great additions to our fleet that support our goal to exceed guest expectations and create great vacation memories for each guest onboard our ships. These strategic investments in new ships that wow our guests are an important part of our measured growth strategy, which includes replacing less efficient ships with newer, larger and more efficient vessels over a very specific period of time."