Carnival (CCL) Tops Q1 Views, But Concordia Costs Weigh on Outlook
Revenue for the cruise giant rose 4.8 percent from $3.42 billion in last year's first quarter to $3.58 billion. Carnival swung to a GAAP loss of $139 million, or 18 cents per share in the quarter. Excluding one-time items, Carnival reported earnings of 2 cents, compared with 19 cents in the first-quarter of 2011.
The Street was looking for revs of $3.57 billion and a loss of 8 cents per share.
Carnival's quarter reflected about $29 million of expenses related to the Costa Concordia incident. Carnival said it "also recorded an insurance recoverable of $515 million (euro 384 million), which offset the write off of the net carrying value of Costa Concordia as the ship has been deemed to be a constructive total loss."
Fuel prices rose 30 percent to $707 per metric ton, adding $137 million to costs.
For its second quarter, Carnival is modeling earnings of 5 cents to 9 cents per share, far below the 21 cent consensus.
Carnival reduced the midpoint of its EPS outlook for 2012 by $1.15, to a range of $1.40 to $1.70. The number is below Street consensus views calling for EPS of $1.85.
Shares are up about 2 percent early Friday.