Carnival shares touch 52-week high on optimism for summer travel

Investing.com -- Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL) shares rose 2% on Friday and hit a 52-week high amid optimism for a strong summer travel season.

Shares of the cruise operator are up 61% so far this year as Carnival and other companies continue to recover from the pandemic lockdowns.

After a surge of travel on Memorial Day weekend to kick off the summer vacation season, Americans are expected to continue to notch new travel gains. Deloitte found half of Americans plan leisure travel this summer involving paid lodging, up from 46% last summer. Three in 10 of those surveyed said they are making up for missed travel or taking a bucket-list journey.

Shares of Carnival were recently upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citi, with a price target of $14. The shares are currently trading just below $13.

According to analysts tracked by FactSet, revenue is expected to come in at $4.77 billion for the second quarter, up from $4.43B in the first quarter. The company forecast occupancy of 98% or higher for the second quarter.

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