Royal Caribbean stock surged early Thursday after the cruise line giant beat Q4 forecasts and guided earnings expectations to a record for 2024.

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Royal Caribbean (RCL) reported adjusted earnings of $1.25 per share, improved from a loss of $1.12 per share last year. Revenue leapt about 28% to $3.33 billion but slowed for the sixth consecutive quarter as sales growth normalized, the company said, following the COVID-19 pandemic.

FactSet analysts expected adjusted earnings to improve to $1.14 per share on 29% to $3.36 billion.

As of Dec. 31, Royal Caribbean’s customer-deposit balance was $5.3 billion and noted it’s encouraged about the demand and pricing environment for 2024. Since the last earnings call, the cruise operator saw its best five weeks of bookings in company history and is at a record booked position in both rate and volume. Meanwhile, customer spending on pre-cruise and onboard purchases exceeds past years due to greater participation at higher prices.

Royal Caribbean management projects a 40% spike in 2024 adjusted earnings, to range from $9.50 to $9.70 per share. Analysts estimated $9.21 per share.  The company sees Q1 earnings ranging from $1.10 to $1.20 per share adjusted, improving from a loss of 23 cents per share last year. FactSet targets Q1 earnings of 93 cents per share adjusted.

Carnival Cruise Update

Rival Carnival Cruise (CCL) on Tuesday announced that it is almost sold out for the first half of the year after seeing record booking volumes since November. However, the company expects to take a 7-8 cent per share hit to its adjusted 2024 earnings due to rerouting around the Red Sea conflict. Carnival expects most of the profit impact to occur in Q2 and said it has not seen any effects to its booking trends.

The cruise line giant reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings and revenue in late December.

Royal Caribbean Stock

RCL stock swung 2.7% higher premarket Thursday. If the premarket move holds, shares will open in a buy zone after bouncing off support at the 21-day exponential moving average.

Royal Caribbean is approaching its record high of 135.65 from January 2018.

RCL stock faded 1.5% so far this year through Wednesday’s close.

Rival CCL stock climbed 2.4% premarket Thursday.

You can follow Harrison Miller for more stock news and updates on X/Twitter @IBD_Harrison

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