Financial Trading Blog

Stock of the day 16/12/2015 – Carnival PLC




After a super surge at the end of 2014 left Carnival at £29.30 at the start of the New Year the stock rose to £31.18 towards the end of January before falling back below the £30 mark for the majority of February. March was slightly rocky, yet the month ended triumphantly as Carnival jumped 7% following news that the company was lifting its full year outlook.

By the start of April Carnival was floating in all-time high territory, edging ever closer to the £34 level for the first time; however, the stock soon saw a sustained decline across the back end of that month, tumbling to £28.88 by the beginning of May. Things picked up once again around the UK election results, hovering around the £31 mark until June 22nd, when a vastly better than expected set of second quarter figures (with net income more than doubling) year-on-year to $222 million from $98 million) saw the stock begin to rise. Add onto this news in July that the company would be offering ‘cultural’ Cuba cruises in 2016 and Carnival managed to climb to a fresh high of £35.75 in the first few weeks of August.

Carnival PLC Chart December 2015
(Source: IT-Finance.com 16/12/2015)

Rather unsurprisingly, Carnival couldn’t escape the well-worn tale of August’s Chinese chaos, and the stock soon fell away from its highs to briefly dip below £30 on Black Monday. Yet the company saw a pretty swift comeback, rising back to £35 in September after a set of better than anticipated third quarter figures.

October saw Carnival continue to rise, eventually hitting a year (and all-time) high of £36.36; however November saw the stock lose momentum as the company began its $1 billion share buyback program. This loss of momentum continued into December, leaving Carnival at a current trading price of £35.61 (IT-Finance.com, 16/12/2015).

In terms of the company’s fourth quarter report on Friday, analysts are expecting Carnival to post a 52% rise in earnings, but with a fall in revenue following the geopolitical incidents and global slowdown of the past few months.

Carnival PLC has a consensus rating of ‘Buy’ with an average target price of £36.20.


DISCLAIMER


Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 64% of retail investors lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. For professional clients, spread betting and CFD trading can also result in losses larger than your initial stake or deposit.

Spreadex Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, provides an execution only service and does not provide advice in any way. Nothing within this update should be deemed to constitute the provision of investment advice, recommendations, any other professional advice in any way, or a record of our trading prices. This update does not constitute or form part of an offer of, or solicitation for a transaction in any financial instrument, nor shall it or the fact of its distribution form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract therefore. Any persons placing trades based on their interpretation of the comments or information within this update does so entirely at their own risk.

No representation, warranty, or undertaking, express or limited, is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information or opinions contained within this update by Spreadex Ltd or any of its employees and no liability is accepted by such persons for the accuracy or completeness of any such information or opinions. As such, no reliance may be placed for any purpose on the information and opinions contained within this update.

The information contained within this update is the intellectual property of Spreadex Ltd and is protected by UK and International copyright laws. All rights reserved. Users may however freely download, distribute and reproduce extracts of the contents, subject always to accrediting Spreadex Ltd as the source and providing a hyperlink to www.spreadex.com.