What's Going On With Carnival Stock Following Norwegian Cruise Line Earnings?

Shares of Carnival Corp CCL fell 2.65% to $18.22 during Wednesday’s session following weaker-than-expected first-quarter earnings from rival Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd, sparking renewed investor anxiety about softening demand and rising operational pressures across the cruise sector.

What To Know: Norwegian missed both earnings and revenue estimates for the first-quarter, reporting adjusted EPS of 7 cents—22% below consensus—and a 2.9% year-over-year revenue decline, despite a robust delivery pipeline and a slew of capital investments, including the debut of its new Norwegian Aqua vessel.

The company also acknowledged pressures from reduced capacity days due to dry-docks, and flagged foreign exchange losses and softening booking trends, particularly in its 12-month forward position.

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For Carnival, the implications are significant. As an operator, Carnival is highly sensitive to shifts in consumer sentiment, macroeconomic weakness, and competitive pricing pressures. Norwegian's results suggest possible headwinds in occupancy and net yield growth—metrics closely watched across the industry.

Furthermore, Carnival’s own debt load and exposure to similar input costs, such as fuel and dry-dock expenses, could magnify the impact of such bearish signals.

With recession concerns mounting after a surprise U.S. GDP contraction, investors appear to be re-rating the near-term outlook for discretionary travel stocks.

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How To Buy CCL Stock

By now you're likely curious about how to participate in the market for Carnival – be it to purchase shares, or even attempt to bet against the company.

Buying shares is typically done through a brokerage account. You can find a list of possible trading platforms here. Many will allow you to buy “fractional shares,” which allows you to own portions of stock without buying an entire share.

In the case of Carnival, which is trading at $18.22 as of publishing time, $100 would buy you 5.49 shares of stock.

If you're looking to bet against a company, the process is more complex. You'll need access to an options trading platform, or a broker who will allow you to “go short” a share of stock by lending you the shares to sell. The process of shorting a stock can be found at this resource. Otherwise, if your broker allows you to trade options, you can either buy a put option, or sell a call option at a strike price above where shares are currently trading – either way it allows you to profit off of the share price decline.

According to data from Benzinga Pro, CCL has a 52-week high of $28.72 and a 52-week low of $13.78.