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If You Invested $1000 in Royal Caribbean a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now

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For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. This factor can impact your investment portfolio as well as help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Royal Caribbean (RCL - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to RCL for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Royal Caribbean's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Royal Caribbean's main business drivers.

Based in Miami and incorporated in 1985, Royal Caribbean Cruises is a cruise company. It owns and operates three global brands — Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises. Additionally, it has 50% investment in a joint venture with TUI AG, which operates the brand, TUI Cruises.

The company’s cruise brands primarily serve the contemporary, premium and deluxe segments of the cruise vacation industry, which also includes the budget and luxury segments. These brands operate 64 ships. The ships operate on a selection of diverse itineraries worldwide that include roughly 1,000 destinations on all seven continents.

The company reports revenues under the following segments — Passenger ticket revenues (65.5% of total revenues in 2022) and Onboard and other revenues (34.5%).

Across the company’s five brands, nearly 5.5 million guests sailed in 2022. By the end of 2022, 64 out of 75 ships returned to operations, representing more than 85% of its worldwide capacity. The company’s bookings improved sequentially by 2022-end. As of Dec 31, 2022, the company had nearly $4.2 billion in customer deposits.

In the third quarter of 2022, the company unveiled a three-year financial performance initiative - Trifecta Program, thereby articulating longer-term financial objectives. The program emphasizes on financial coordinates, including Adjusted EBITDA per APCD, Adjusted EPS and ROIC. Under this program, the company expects to achieve a triple-digit adjusted EBITDA per APCD, exceeding the earlier record adjusted EBITDA per APCD of $87 in 2019. The company also expects to achieve double-digit adjusted earnings per share, exceeding the earlier record adjusted earnings per share of $9.54 in 2019. The company anticipates achieving a return on invested capital in the teens in 2023.

Bottom Line

While anyone can invest, building a lucrative investment portfolio takes research, patience, and a little bit of risk. If you had invested in Royal Caribbean ten years ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.

A $1000 investment made in December 2013 would be worth $2,730.20, or a 173.02% gain, as of December 25, 2023, according to our calculations. Investors should note that this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.

The S&P 500 rose 161.48% and the price of gold increased 63.88% over the same time frame in comparison.

Going forward, analysts are expecting more upside for RCL.

Shares of Royal Caribbean have outperformed the industry in the past year. The company has been benefitting from solid demand for cruising and acceleration in booking volumes. Also, emphasis on strong pricing (on closer-in-demand) bodes well. The company stated that the momentum has continued into 2024, with booked load factors and rates surpassing those of all previous years. Given the full fleet resumption and load factors at high prices, the company expects customer deposits to return to typical seasonality in the upcoming periods. In 2023, the company anticipates solid guest generation from the North America region. Also, it intends to focus on new innovative ships and onboard experiences to boost its offering and deliver superior yields and margins. Earnings estimates for 2024 have increased in the past 30 days.

Over the past four weeks, shares have rallied 22.75%, and there have been 8 higher earnings estimate revisions in the past two months for fiscal 2023 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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