Carnival Q1 Earnings Top Expectations, Shares Surge

Shares of

jumped over 5% after the company posted stronger-than-expected earnings for the first quarter. However, the company issued a weak earnings guidance for its current quarter. The Miami, Florida-based company posted a quarterly profit of $49 million, or $0.06 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $20 million, or $0.03 per share. Excluding items, the company's earnings came in at $0.20 per share. Its revenue slipped 1.7% to $3.53 billion. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $0.10 per share on revenue of $3.57 billion. Carnival's passenger ticket revenue slipped 3.5%, while onboard spending rose to $889 million from $850 million. Net revenue yields on a constant dollar basis rose 2%. Net cruise costs, excluding fuel, climbed 2.4%. Operating costs declined 7% in the recent quarter. Fuel prices shrank 38% to $406 per metric ton, compared to $654 per metric ton in the year-ago quarter. Carnival Corporation & plc President and Chief Executive Officer Arnold Donald said, "The year is off to a strong start achieving significantly higher earnings than the prior year and our previous guidance. Our onboard revenue initiatives drove particularly strong improvement in the first quarter with onboard yields more than 8 percent higher than prior year (constant dollar)." For fiscal year 2015, the company projects earnings of $2.30 to $2.50 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $2.50 per share. The company now expects net revenue yield to rise 3% to 4% on a constant currency basis. For the current quarter, the company projects earnings of $0.11 to $0.15 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $0.26 per share. It expects constant dollar net revenue yields growth of 2% to 3% in the quarter. The average estimate of 17 users surveyed by Estimize was for earnings of $0.12 per share and revenue of $3.66 billion for the first quarter. Carnival shares rose 5.67% to $46.94 at 10:45 a.m. ET.