Carnival Corporation (CCL) PT Raised to $32 at Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs analyst Lizzie Dove raised the price target on Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL) to $32.00 while maintaining a Buy rating.
The analyst comments "Bottom line: CCL's resilience was on display, with a solid beat to 1Q, no change to the 2Q-4Q net yield outlook, and bookings commentary that generally seemed to buck the choppiness in the macro/geopolitical landscape. More specifically, Caribbean overcapacity fears appear to be a thing of the past, CCL seems to be a net share taker in Alaska, and Europe is holding up relatively well, though CCL's guidance seems to conservatively factor in some slowdown in local close-in demand in that region. In addition, CCL announced a new set of long term targets which imply ~11% EPS CAGR from 2025-2029 and a $14bn capital return program which includes an initial $2.5bn buyback authorization. While on the day this may not have been enough to overcome some investors' concerns (with the somewhat aggressive fuel curve assumptions also a key overhang), we believe the risk-reward is some of the best we've seen for CCL (and the broader sector) at these levels, with shares trading at ~9X STM P/E despite CCL being at a key inflection point of greater capital returns, improving ROIC and >double-digit EPS CAGR from '25-29. While we acknowledge it's difficult to be bullish on cruise stocks in the midst of geopolitical conflict, with CCL down ~26% in the last ~month, we believe this represents an attractive entry point for the stock, and we maintain our Buy rating and raise our price target to $32."
