Cruise Line Sector's Q2 Earnings: 2 Down, 1 To Go

The cruise line sector has seen Carnival Corp CCL and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd RCL report Q2 numbers. Both companies delivered better-than-expected earnings for the quarter.

However, both companies provided worse-than-expected outlook for the third quarter triggering a cut in the price target by brokerages. That was also enough to drag down the stock. For instance, Barclays reduced its price tag to $56 from $58 on Carnival shares.

Carnival is trading down by $1.23 or 2.63 percent at $45.49. Royal Caribbean, which reported earnings earlier this morning, is trading down by $4.81 or 6.69 percent at $67.05 at time of writing. Both stocks are also trading below 20-day, 50-day and 200-day moving averages.

The attention now turns towards Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. NCLH ahead of its earnings results on August 9. Investors have already started dumping the stock taking cue from the two companies' results and guidance. At time of writing this, the stock traded down by $2.69 or 6.35 percent at $39.76.

Street analysts are looking for an EPS of $0.83 on revenue of $1.22 billion for the second quarter from Norwegian Cruise. The Street is also looking at an EPS of $1.80 on revenue of $1.54 billion as guidance for the third quarter.

Other companies like Carnival plc CUK have yet to report earnings, but are trading down, suggesting the outlook for the sector is weaker than expected.