Royal Caribbean offers most value in cruise sector, says Citi

Citi analyst James Hardiman has a Buy rating on Royal Caribbean with a reestablished $80 price target saying the stock represents the most value in the cruise sector. Citi’s most recent work on the cruise industry points to steady improvement in late-2022 and a positive start to 2023, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Royal remains the firm’s favorite name in the group given its "most compelling balance of pricing and cost controls." That said, Citi thinks cruise stocks as a group have graduated from "proxy trades" to "compelling long-term investment narratives." The post-pandemic momentum of the cruise space "clearly outweighs" potential macro headwinds in 2023, with budding Asian and European narratives building into 2024, contends the analyst.