Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Acquires 21,817 Shares of Carnival Co. & plc (NYSE:CCL)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Carnival Co. & plc (NYSE:CCL - Free Report) by 4.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 485,090 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 21,817 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.'s holdings in Carnival Co. & were worth $9,474,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CCL. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Carnival Co. & by 186.6% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,898,906 shares of the company's stock worth $246,681,000 after purchasing an additional 6,444,444 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Carnival Co. & by 33.7% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 22,850,042 shares of the company's stock valued at $569,423,000 after buying an additional 5,761,489 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Carnival Co. & by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,095,566 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,918,022,000 after buying an additional 4,458,329 shares during the period. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI acquired a new position in shares of Carnival Co. & during the fourth quarter worth approximately $100,845,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Carnival Co. & by 228.8% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,689,305 shares of the company's stock worth $116,857,000 after purchasing an additional 3,263,204 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.19% of the company's stock.

Carnival Co. & Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CCL traded down $1.18 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $22.39. 36,856,661 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 25,514,678. The company has a market capitalization of $26.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 2.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.80. Carnival Co. & plc has a 52-week low of $13.78 and a 52-week high of $28.72. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $20.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $22.93.

Carnival Co. & (NYSE:CCL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 21st. The company reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.11. Carnival Co. & had a return on equity of 24.13% and a net margin of 7.66%. The business had revenue of $5.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.74 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.14) EPS. Carnival Co. &'s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Carnival Co. & plc will post 1.77 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on CCL shares. Northcoast Research started coverage on Carnival Co. & in a research report on Friday, April 25th. They issued a "neutral" rating for the company. Morgan Stanley upgraded Carnival Co. & from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $25.00 to $21.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Carnival Co. & from $32.00 to $26.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Tigress Financial reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Carnival Co. & in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Loop Capital raised their target price on Carnival Co. & from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $26.58.

About Carnival Co. &

Carnival Corp. engages in the operation of cruise ships. It operates through the following business segments: North America and Australia (NAA) Cruise, Europe and Asia (EA) Cruise Operations, Cruise Support, and Tour and Others. The North America and Australia (NAA) Cruise segment includes the Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, and Seabourn.