Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Has $583,000 Position in Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund grew its holdings in Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL - Free Report) by 92.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 29,840 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 14,328 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund's holdings in Carnival were worth $583,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Carnival 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Carnival by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,228,416 shares of the company's stock worth $627,053,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201,256 shares during the period. Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its position in Carnival by 33.7% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 22,850,042 shares of the company's stock worth $569,423,000 after purchasing an additional 5,761,489 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in Carnival by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 18,649,543 shares of the company's stock worth $464,747,000 after purchasing an additional 877,694 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in Carnival by 17.7% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 18,097,001 shares of the company's stock worth $450,977,000 after purchasing an additional 2,720,096 shares during the period. 67.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on CCL. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Carnival from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Loop Capital restated a "hold" rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of Carnival in a report on Monday. Northcoast Research assumed coverage on Carnival in a report on Friday, April 25th. They set a "neutral" rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Carnival from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Macquarie reduced their target price on Carnival from $31.00 to $26.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 9th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Carnival currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $27.84.

Carnival Stock Up 2.9%

Shares of NYSE:CCL traded up $0.75 during trading on Thursday, hitting $26.23. 29,044,127 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 25,300,442. Carnival Corporation has a 52 week low of $13.78 and a 52 week high of $28.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.58. The company has a market cap of $30.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.57 and a beta of 2.58. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $21.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $22.83.

Carnival (NYSE:CCL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, June 24th. The company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $6.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.20 billion. Carnival had a return on equity of 27.88% and a net margin of 9.72%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.11 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Carnival Corporation will post 1.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Carnival Profile

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.