Carnival Corporation & plc CCL

Catalyst

Carnival reported third quarter 2026 results on September 29: revenue of 8,435 million dollars, net income of 1,920 million dollars, adjusted earnings per share of 1.43 dollars, net yields of 254.99 dollars per available lower berth day up 2.4 percent in constant currency, and customer deposits of 7.6 billion dollars, half a billion above a prior year record. Full year adjusted earnings per share guidance was raised to 2.24 dollars. The shares rose 13.4 percent that day from a level 34 cents above their 52 week low.

Why It Mattered

The rest of the consumer tape disagreed with this print. Consumer Discretionary fell 1.37 percent, Walmart fell 3.10 percent and Home Depot fell 3.33 percent across the same week. Customer deposits are cash already paid for travel not yet taken, which makes them the closest thing in the consumer complex to a forward order book, and Royal Caribbean rose roughly half as much and only after Carnival opened.

Risk Note

Fourth quarter adjusted earnings per share were guided to about 0.20 dollars against a consensus near 0.25, and the full year raise absorbs a 150 million dollar fuel headwind that has not gone away. The shares remain about 18 percent lower for the calendar year and about 26 percent below their 52 week high, and a heavily financed operator is poorly placed in a week when the long end made a new cycle high.