Carnival Corp reported a better-than-expected leap in fourth-quarter profit as the cruise giant rolled out a 2017 yield outlook that is rosier than analyst forecasts.
The Miami cruiseship owner reported net income of $609m for the final quarter of its fiscal year, a 126% jump on the same period of last year.
That translates into adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.67, which beats the average analyst estimate calling for $0.58 and is above even Carnival's own guidance for the period, according to data from UBS.
New York-listed Carnival, which has the world's largest fleet of cruiseships, said it now expects full-year adjusted EPS to come in between $3.30 and $3.60.
UBS analyst Robin Farley said the company's outlook for more than 2.5% in yield growth on a constant currency basis is better than expected given Carnival's tendency for conservative forecasts.
Carnival said advance booking for the first three quarters of 2017 are better than the forward bookings at this time last year, and at higher prices.
"We enjoyed strong momentum in booking patterns throughout 2016 and therefore are in a stronger booked position entering the new year at higher prices as a result of our ongoing efforts to increase consideration and demand for our brands," said chief executive Arnold Donald (pictured).
The quarter's record result helped push net income for the full fiscal year to $2.78bn, up from $1.76bn a year earlier.
Earnings snapshot
| Q4 2016 | Q4 2015 | |
| Revenue | $3.94bn | $3.71bn |
| Operating costs and expenses | $3.34bn | $3.2bn |
| Operating income | $597m | $510m |
| Net income | $609m | $270m |
| EPS | $0.84 | $0.35 |
Donald said it is the most profitable year in the company's history.
"The continued execution of our core strategy to drive consumer demand in excess of measured capacity growth, contain costs and leverage our industry-leading scale resulted in our third consecutive year of significantly higher earnings and return on invested capital," he said.
