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Carnival (CCL) Extends Halt in Operations on Coronavirus Woes

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The wait prolongs for cruise lovers as Carnival Corporation & plc (CCL - Free Report) has delayed its resumption plan further. The company recently informed its guests and travel advisor partners of cancellations for additional sailings. The company has cancelled almost all of its Carnival Cruise Line voyages through Jul 30.

Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line said “We continue to have constructive discussions with the CDC but still have many questions that remain unanswered. We are working diligently to resume sailing in the U.S. and meet the CDC guidelines.”

The company is optimistic about resuming sailings on three ships from Florida and Texas, which include Carnival Vista as well as Carnival Breeze from Galveston, and Carnival Horizon from Miami.

Due to the uncertainty, guests who have booked may opt for alternate summer vacation plans or may cancel without paying penalty by May 31, 2021 and receive a full refund.

Price Performance

Coming to the price performance, shares of Carnival have gained 19.5% so far this year compared with the industry’s growth of 14.6%. Bookings for 2020 have been significantly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. However, the company stated that cumulative advanced bookings for full year 2022 are ahead of a very robust 2019 as of Mar 21, 2021. These bookings were achieved by negligible advertising and marketing. Booking volumes have doubled in first-quarter 2021 compared with previous-quarter levels. Initial demand buoyed the company’s confidence, which provides an indication of price strength. It believes the situation to remain dynamic over the next 12 months.



The company is unable to provide earnings guidance for fiscal 2021 as it is unsure as to when the entire fleet will return to normal operations. Notably, the pause in operations will continue to hurt the company’s liquidity and results.

Carnival — which shares space with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH - Free Report) and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL - Free Report) in the Zacks Leisure and Recreation Services industry — has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), at present.

A key Pick

A better-ranked stock worth considering in the Zacks Leisure and Recreation Services space includes Vail Resorts, Inc. (MTN - Free Report) , which sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Vail Resorts earnings in fiscal 2021 is likely to witness growth of 3.8%.

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