Carnival Beats Profit Forecasts, As Fuel Prices Fall, But Sales Miss

Shares of Carnival Corp. edged up 0.2% in premarket trade Friday, after the cruise ship operator's better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted profit was offset by sales that fell shy of forecasts. For the quarter ended Nov. 30, the company swung to a net loss of $102 million, or 13 cents a share, from a profit of $66 million, or 8 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding non-recurring items, the adjusted per-share profit was 27 cents, above the FactSet consensus analyst estimate of 21 cents, as fuel prices fell more than expected. Revenue rose to $3.72 billion from $3.66 billion, as passenger ticket sales increased to $2.75 billion from $2.7 billion, compared with analyst forecasts of $3.81 billion and $2.79 billion, respectively. The company said it expects an adjusted per-share profit for the first quarter of 7 cents to 11 cents, surrounding analyst forecasts of 10 cents. The stock has gained 11% this year through Thursday, just behind the S&P 500's rise of 12%.