Carnival leads gains in cruise stocks as analysts eye strong travel demand

By Chibuike Oguh

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Shares of Carnival (NYSE:) Corp and Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE:) Holdings Ltd jumped on Monday, and were among the top performers, as analysts anticipate continuing growth in travel demand from customers.

Bookings across the cruise industry, which were hit hard during the pandemic, have now reached historical levels without any notable upsurge in cancellations, analysts at JPMorgan (NYSE:) and Bank of America (NYSE:) Global Research wrote in their investor notes after meetings with executives at Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean (NYSE:) Cruises Ltd.The growth in bookings is largely driven by pent-up demand from loyal customers returning to taking summer vacations and other leisure travel, said the analysts.

JPMorgan upgraded Carnival shares to “overweight”, while Bank of America raised its rating on the stock to “buy”, and the analysts raised their price targets on all the three cruise companies.

Carnival shares rose 14% to a more than 1-year high in early trading on Monday while Norwegian Cruise gained nearly 8%. Royal Caribbean was up more than 3% to $94 per share. The S&P 500 Hotels Resorts & Cruise Lines Sub-Industry Index was up 0.9% led by gains in cruise stocks.

Commercial airline shares were also making gains on Monday amid falling prices and growth in demand for seats. The S&P 1500 Airlines index was last up 2% led by Southwest Airlines (NYSE:), Hawaiian Holdings (NASDAQ:) and American Airlines (NASDAQ:) group.

This story has been refiled to add missing word ‘in’ in paragraph 5

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