What: Shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL 0.54%) dropped 16% midday on Wall Street after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings.
So what: Revenue was up 4.4% in the quarter to $1.90 billion, but that fell short of the $1.96 billion analysts had expected. On the bottom line, net income rose from $109.8 million a year ago to $206.8 million, or $0.94 per share, $0.02 ahead of estimates.
What concerned investors more was 2016 guidance of $5.90 to $6.10 per share in earnings, which was below analysts' consensus estimate of $6.27 per share.
Now what: While missing estimates can often mean a bad day for a stock, it's important to put this miss into perspective. Revenue was up in the fourth quarter, and net income nearly doubled. As for 2016, the guidance figure is a big increase from earnings per share of $4.83 on an adjusted basis in 2015, so it isn't like Royal Caribbean is sailing backward.
With shares trading at just 11.9 times 2016 guidance, I think there's a good value for investors and lots of upside if the global economy improves later this year.
