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Key Takeaways
- Royal Caribbean reports record bookings at the start of its key Wave season.
- Fourth-quarter profit beat estimates, but revenue fell short.
- Royal Caribbean sees current quarter EPS of $1.10 to $1.20, above analysts’ predictions.
Royal Caribbean Group ( RCL ) reported better-than-expected profit and outlook as it had record bookings to start the key Wave season for cruise operators. However, shares dropped as the company fell short of analysts’ expectations on revenue.
The company posted fourth-quarter earnings per share (EPS) of $1.25, exceeding estimates. Revenue rose 28% to $3.33 billion, although that was below forecasts.
Passenger ticket revenue was up 34% to $2.29 billion, in line with forecasts. But while onboard and other revenue was higher by about 16% to $1.05 billion, that came in short of expectations.
Royal Caribbean said that it is “very encouraged about the demand and pricing environment for 2024.” It noted that it had its best five booking weeks in history since its last earnings announcement in October, including the first three weeks of the Wave season. The company added that because of that, it is now “in a record booked position in both rate and volume.”
Royal Caribbean sees current quarter EPS of $1.10 to $1.20, above analysts’ predictions.
Shares of Royal Caribbean were down 0.4% at $126.98 at around 1:00 p.m. ET Thursday, after falling as low as $122.30 earlier in the day. Even with today’s declines, shares of Royal Caribbean Group are up nearly 90% over the past year, and they are trading near their highest level since before the COVID-19 outbreak, which basically shut down the industry and sent shares plunging.