What happened
Shares of cruise tour company Carnival Corporation (CCL 2.92%) fell 2.5% through 1:55 p.m. EDT Wednesday -- its second down day in a row after missing earnings yesterday.
But this time, it was Wall Street -- not Carnival -- to blame for the decline.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Tic-tac-toe, three-in-a-row investment banks Stifel Nicolaus, Deutsche Bank, and Citigroup lined up to offer lower price targets on Carnival stock today.
Of the three, only Stifel still has a "buy" rating on Carnival stock, noting that management "remains generally upbeat" about trends in cruise bookings for late this year and into 2023. But even Stifel admits that bookings for the second half of 2022 may be at risk, and for that reason, the analyst cut its estimates for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) this year -- and for the next two years, too -- and cut its price target to $30 a share.
Deutsche and Citi, meanwhile, are even more conservative. In a note covered on TheFly.com, Deutsche agreed with Stifel about management sounding "upbeat" but noted that pent-up demand for cruising appears to be already priced into Carnival stock, which it values at $24 a share. Furthermore, rising oil prices, higher interest rates, and unease caused by the war in Europe could all drag on Carnival's performance forward.
Now what
Speaking of which, Citi injected a note of hope into the debate when it mused that if we "can merely get some stability" on such variables as the war, the rising cost of fuel, inflation, and on-again, off-again Covid surges, it's possible investors could see "substantial" improvement in Carnival's numbers "in coming months."
Unless and until that happens, however, Citi is sticking with its neutral rating on Carnival and giving Carnival stock the lowest price target of these three analysts today: $23 a share.
