Shares of cruise liner, Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) gained in pre-market trading at the time of publishing on Monday after Wall Street analysts upgraded the stock as they didn’t see any signs of travel demand slowing down.
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JP Morgan analyst Matthew Boss upgraded the stock to a Buy from a Hold and raised the price target to $16 from $11, implying an upside potential of 22.2% at current levels. The analyst upgraded the stock following a meeting with the company’s management, indicating a “bullish tone on current trends (and 1H24 bookings) with zero signs of momentum slowing as pent-up loyalist demand a year ago transitions to new-to-cruise strength today.”
Boss pointed out that CCL “has six private destinations around the Caribbean and is leveraging its land-based assets to drive further value creation into 2H25 with a meaningful expansion of Half Moon Cay by building a pier to bring larger ships and improve shoreside guest experience.”
Besides Boss, Bank of America analyst Nicholas Thomas also upgraded the stock to a Buy from a Hold and raised the price target to $19 from an initial price target of $17. Thomas’ current price target implies an upside potential of 52.8% at current levels. Similar to analyst Boss, Thomas came away confident after his meetings with the management that there continued to be strong demand for cruises with rational pricing and bookings remained in-line with expectations.
Analysts are cautiously optimistic about CCL stock with a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on seven Buys, three Holds, and two Sells.
