Carnival provides estimate of what the Baltimore bridge collapse will cost it

By Tomi Kilgore

Cruise operator came up shy on Q1 revenue, but reported a narrower-than-expected loss and raised its full-year profit outlook

Shares of Carnival Corp. turned higher Wednesday, after the cruise operator reported a narrower-than-expected fiscal first-quarter loss, while also providing an estimate for what the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore would cost it this year.

While the company (CCL) raised its full-year profit outlook, it said that the outlook does not include the estimated impact of the bridge collapse, given that it "happened yesterday and the situation is fluid."

However, Chief Executive Josh Weinstein said on the post-earnings call with analysts, according to an AlphaSense transcript, that he expects the situation "to have less than a $10 million impact to our full-year guidance."

That represents less than 1% of the FactSet consensus for fiscal 2024 net income of $1.36 billion.

To help minimize the operational issues resulting from the bridge collapse, Weistein said a temporary homeport was secured in Norfolk, Va., "for as long as it's needed."

See MarketWatch's live coverage of the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse.

The stock rallied 2.3% in afternoon trading, to reverse an earlier intraday loss of as much as 5%.

For the quarter to Feb. 29, Carnival said net losses narrowed to $214 million, or 17 cents a share, from $693 million, or 55 cents a share, in the same period a year ago.

Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted per-share losses of 14 cents beat the FactSet loss consensus of 18 cents.

Revenue grew 22% to $5.41 billion, just shy of the FactSet consensus of $5.42 billion, to snap a four-quarter streak of revenue beats.

Passenger-ticket revenue rose 26% to $3.62 billion, above expectations of $3.56 billion, while onboard and other revenue increased 14.5% to $1.79 billion to miss forecasts of $1.84 billion.

Bookings for the quarter were at record levels and at "considerably higher prices" than a year ago. And net yields, when excluding the effects of changes in currency rates, exceeded last year's levels by more than 17%.

"These results are a continuation of the strong demand we have been generating across our brands and all core deployments, leading to an upward revision of full-year expectations by more than a point of incremental yield improvement and setting us up nicely to deliver a nearly double-digit improvement in net yields," Chief Executive Josh Weinstein said.

Looking ahead, the company expects adjusted per-shares losses for the second quarter of 3 cents, which matches the FactSet loss forecast, but it raised its full-year outlook for earnings per share to 98 from 93 cents.

"Even with less inventory available for the remainder of the year, booking volumes hit an all-time high, driven by demand for 2025 sailings and beyond," Weinstein said.

The stock has lost 6% year to date, while the S&P 500 index has gained 9.6%.

-Tomi Kilgore

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03-27-24 1434ET

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