Mizuho on Carnival (CCL): 'Buying Opportunity on Solid Update and Misaligned Expectations'

Mizuho analyst Ben Chaiken reiterated an Outperform rating and $37.00 price target on Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL).

The analyst comments "While fundamentally a good update from CCL today, we also understand why the stock is down. Here is how we view the softness: (1) heading into the print we flagged twice that Street costs for '26 that were too low by ~100bps. We didn't expect to get '26 cost commentary, but knew this was a risk at some point. Today CCL flagged 100bps from incremental Dry Docks and 50bps from Celebration, neither of which is in Street; directionally, we flagged both. (2) HF positioning slightly crowded, more than we appreciated, which is somewhat ironic given CCL trades at ~8x forward EBITDA, and the least expensive in the group, and (3) The market picking at some hesitation around price (whether justified or not is debatable), both in Q4 and FY26. However, market overlooking strong capital return inflection upcoming, inherent conservatism (e.g., 4Q), strong '26 booking commentary, and Celebration/Half Moon ramp."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Carnival Corporation click here. For more ratings news on Carnival Corporation click here.

Shares of Carnival Corporation closed at $30.62 yesterday.

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