What’s Happening With Carnival Stock?

What’s Happening With Carnival Stock?

Carnival (NYSE: CCL), the largest cruise operator, has seen its stock rise by about 12% since the beginning of 2021. Here's a quick rundown of some of the recent developments for the company. Firstly, Carnival has continued to push back its cruising timeline. In late January, the company said that it had paused departures from the U.S through the end of April, and canceled Australian operations through mid-May, although a few of its ships are likely to be cruising again in Europe around March. Overall, we think it's safe to assume that the company's operations will pick-up in a meaningful way only later this year, by when a bulk of the U.S. population is likely to be vaccinated against Covid-19. This would mean that the company is likely to miss out on the Summer cruising season, which is typically the busiest.

Earlier this month, Carnival said that it would raise an additional $3.5 billion in debt via senior unsecured notes that mature in 2027 at a rate of 5.75% a year. Although the company ended the last fiscal year with cash and cash equivalents of $9.5 billion, giving it about 18 months of liquidity based on a Q4 cash burn rate