Carnival (CCL) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL) is a global cruise operator that provides leisure travel services through a portfolio of passenger cruise brands. The company’s core business is operating cruise ships that offer multi-night voyages and associated vacation services, including onboard accommodations, dining, entertainment, spa and wellness offerings, casinos, youth programs, and organized shore excursions. Carnival markets cruise vacations to a broad range of consumers, from value-focused travelers to premium and luxury segments, through differentiated brand positioning and onboard experiences.

Its operating structure comprises multiple well-known cruise brands that target distinct geographic and demographic markets. These brands include mainstream and premium lines that serve North American, European, Australian and Asian itineraries, with ship deployments tailored by season and route demand. In addition to core cruise operations, Carnival’s services encompass itinerary planning, packaged shore excursions, specialized onboard programming, and guest loyalty initiatives designed to encourage repeat business.

Carnival’s origins trace back to the early 1970s when the original Carnival Cruise Line was founded and later expanded through organic growth and acquisitions. A notable milestone in its corporate history was the combination of Carnival with other cruise interests to create a dual-listed global company, which broadened its international footprint and brand portfolio. Today the company operates across major cruise markets worldwide and manages a diverse fleet that serves short and long-duration itineraries to a variety of destinations.

Leadership has included members of the Arison family historically involved in the company’s direction, and executive management responsible for day-to-day operations and strategic planning. Carnival positions itself as one of the leading global cruise operators, focused on delivering holiday experiences across a range of prices and styles while responding to regulatory, safety and operational demands inherent to the cruise industry.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $26.79 to $27.62
• 50-Day Range: $23.89 to $32.72
• 52-Week Range: $19.44 to $34.03
• Volume: 50.78 million shs
• Average Volume: 27.75 million shs
• Market Capitalization: $34.12 billion
• P/E Ratio: 12.24
• Dividend Yield: 2.18%
• Price Target: $33.99
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy

Carnival Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Carnival scored higher than 99% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 4th out of 272 stocks in the consumer discretionary sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 4.3 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Moderate Buy

Consensus Rating

Carnival has received a consensus rating of Moderate Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.77, and is based on no strong buy ratings, 21 buy ratings, 4 hold ratings, and 1 sell rating.

Upside Potential

Carnival has a consensus price target of $33.99, representing about 23.4% upside from its current price of $27.54.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Carnival has been the subject of 15 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 3.1 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 16.14%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Carnival are expected to grow by 16.14% in the coming year, from $2.23 to $2.59 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Carnival is 12.24, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 38.47.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Carnival is 12.24, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Consumer Discretionary sector average P/E ratio of about 17.42.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

Carnival has a PEG Ratio of 1.13. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Carnival has a P/B Ratio of 2.61. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 4.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

3.76% of the float of Carnival has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Carnival has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 1.68, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Carnival has recently decreased by 0.70%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving.

Dividend

• Score: 2.5 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Moderate

Dividend Yield

Carnival pays a meaningful dividend of 2.33%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

Dividend Growth

Carnival does not have a long track record of dividend growth.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of Carnival is 26.67%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on earnings estimates, Carnival will have a dividend payout ratio of 23.17% next year. This indicates that Carnival will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

News and Social Media

• Score: 4.3 / 5
• News Sentiment: 0.85

News Sentiment

Carnival has a news sentiment score of 0.85. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 0.58 average news sentiment score of Consumer Discretionary companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 25 news articles for Carnival this week, compared to 13 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

94 people have searched for CCL on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 9% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

33 people have added Carnival to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 57% compared to the previous 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 1.7 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Carnival insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $314,265.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

7.90% of the stock of Carnival is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

67.19% of the stock of Carnival is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

CCL Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

How have CCL shares performed this year?

Carnival's stock was trading at $30.55 on January 1st, 2026. Since then, CCL shares have decreased by 9.9% and is now trading at $27.5350.

How were Carnival's earnings last quarter?

Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) issued its earnings results on Friday, March, 27th. The company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.02. Carnival's quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year.
Read the conference call transcript.

Does Carnival have any subsidiaries?

Carnival subsidiaries include 1972 Productions Inc., 6348 Equipment LLC, A.C.N. 098 290 834 Pty. Ltd., Adventure Island Ltd., AIDA Kundencenter GmbH, AIDAradio GmbH, Air-Sea Holiday GmbH, and more.

Who are Carnival's major shareholders?

Top institutional shareholders of Carnival include Bessemer Group Inc. (0.69%), Bank of New York Mellon Corp (0.45%), Assenagon Asset Management S.A. (0.34%) and SG Americas Securities LLC (0.30%). Insiders that own company stock include Randall J Weisenburger, David Bernstein and Sir Jonathon Band.
View institutional ownership trends.

How do I buy shares of Carnival?

Shares of CCL stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.

What other stocks do shareholders of Carnival own?

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that Carnival investors own include Meta Platforms (META), NVIDIA (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Walt Disney (DIS), Delta Air Lines (DAL) and Verizon Communications (VZ).

Company Calendar

• Record date for 2/27 Dividend: 2/13/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 2/27 Dividend: 2/13/2026
• Dividend Payable: 2/27/2026
• Last Earnings: 3/27/2026
• Today: 5/07/2026
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 6/23/2026
• Fiscal Year End: 11/30/2026

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NYSE
• Sector: Consumer Discretionary
• Industry: LEISURE&REC SVS
• Sub-Industry: Hotels Resorts & Cruise Lines
• Current Symbol: NYSE:CCL
• CIK: 815097
• Web: www.carnival.com
• Phone: (305) 599-2600
• Fax: 305-399-4696
• Employees: 101,000
• Year Founded: 1972

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for Carnival: $33.99
• High Price Target: $45.00
• Low Price Target: $22.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +23.4%
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.77
• Research Coverage: 26 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $2.25
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 12.24
• Forward P/E Ratio: 12.35
• P/E Growth: 1.13
• Net Income: $2.76 billion
• Net Margins: 11.48%
• Pretax Margin: 11.57%
• Return on Equity: 26.92%
• Return on Assets: 6.20%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 1.82
• Current Ratio: 0.30
• Quick Ratio: 0.26

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $26.62 billion
• Price / Sales: 1.28
• Cash Flow: $5.49 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 5.02
• Book Value: $10.53 per share
• Price / Book: 2.61

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 1,239,000,000
• Free Float: 1,141,119,000
• Market Cap: $34.12 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 2.33