Carnival Corp.’s stock dropped on Friday after the cruise line said that “heightened macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility” had affected it, despite the fact that the firm had increased its profit projection for the year.
According to Carnival, their adjusted fiscal 2025 net income is now expected to rise by over 30% over 2024. The view represents a $185 million increase over its December projection.
“While we are not completely immune from the heightened macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility since providing our December guidance, we are still taking up our earnings expectations for the year and we remain on track to have another stellar year across our cruise brands,” Carnival stated.
The 4.4% projection for the current quarter fell short of expectations, even though the business also increased its full-year guidance for growth on net yields, a measure of profitability per passenger cruise day, from 4.2% to 4.7%.
In the morning, Carnival’s shares (CCL) fell 3.7%. The stock has already lost 18.1% in 2025, compared to a 4.5% loss for the S&P 500 index SPX.
Competing cruise lines’ stock is also being affected by the selloff; Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.’s (NCLH) and Royal Caribbean Group’s (RCL) shares both dropped 1.8% and 2.2%, respectively.
Net losses for the fiscal first quarter ended February 28 decreased to $78 million, or 6 cents per share, from $214 million, or 17 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.
Adjusted first-quarter profit of 13 cents per share, which excludes nonrecurring items like debt-extinguishment charges, exceeded the FactSet consensus expectation of 2 cents per share. Carnival recorded an adjusted loss of 14 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue surpassed the consensus analyst expectation of $5.75 billion by 7.5% to $5.81 billion.
“Our first quarter was truly characterized by outperformance,” the business stated the statement. “This was across the board and led by incredibly strong demand throughout our portfolio including exceptional close-in demand that exceeded expectations for both ticket prices and onboard spending.”
According to the company, at record prices, its booking curve is the furthest out on record.
“Onboard spending is robust and we have proven to be incredibly resilient,” the business stated.
