Carnival price target raised to $20 from $18 at Citi

Citi analyst James Hardiman raised the firm’s price target on Carnival to $20 from $18 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. Concurrent with the company’s first analyst day since before the pandemic, the shares were up 9% on Tuesday, more than undoing Monday’s decline as investors shrugged off concerns about “stubborn” 2023 cost inflation in favor of the “substantial value” represented by the longer-term outlook, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm says the share rally was less about incremental new news coming out of the analyst day and more about increased plausibility surrounding Carnival’s 2026 targets, clarity on the path back to investment grade metrics, and the strength in the business for 2024.