The world’s largest cruise company Carnival Corp reported hugely disappointing earnings results on Friday that missed Wall Street estimates by a wide margin. As a result, the company’s stock took a 22 percent hit and came down to a 30-year low of $7.16 per share.
Carnival Corp is still dealing with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic that had a significant impact on the cruise industry and caused the cruise operators to stop operations for prolonged periods of time. While the cruise industry is recovering, inflation, rising costs, and other factors are preventing many cruise companies from getting back on their feet.
Carnival managed to increase its profit from $546 million in 2021 to $4.31 billion, but this was nowhere near enough to meet the $4.90 billion estimated by analysts. It also recorded 58 cents per share loss compared to the estimated 15 cents expected.
The company doesn’t expect things will be better in the fourth quarter, estimating that it will record a loss or break close to even in the best-case scenario. However, Carnival’s CEO Josh Weinstein is keeping a positive outlook for the future.
“Since announcing the relaxation of our protocols last month, we have seen a meaningful improvement in booking volumes and are now running considerably ahead of strong 2019 levels,” said Weinstein in a statement. “We expect to further capitalize on this momentum with renewed efforts to generate demand.”