Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE:RCL) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

by · The Cerbat Gem

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE:RCL – Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Saturday morning.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on RCL. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises from $420.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Royal Caribbean Cruises from $235.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on Royal Caribbean Cruises in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $405.00 price objective on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises in a report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on Royal Caribbean Cruises from $230.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $326.86.

Get Our Latest Analysis on RCL

Royal Caribbean Cruises Trading Down 3.1%

NYSE:RCL opened at $277.85 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $75.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.69, a P/E/G ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 2.08. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $324.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $298.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a current ratio of 0.16. Royal Caribbean Cruises has a 52 week low of $164.01 and a 52 week high of $366.50.

Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE:RCL – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The company reported $5.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.68 by $0.07. Royal Caribbean Cruises had a net margin of 23.33% and a return on equity of 44.68%. The firm had revenue of $5.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $5.20 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Royal Caribbean Cruises has set its FY 2025 guidance at 15.580-15.630 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 2.740-2.790 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Royal Caribbean Cruises will post 14.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 25th were given a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. This is an increase from Royal Caribbean Cruises’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 25th. Royal Caribbean Cruises’s payout ratio is presently 26.90%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Vagn O. Sorensen sold 10,300 shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.04, for a total transaction of $3,399,412.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 16,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,414,966.28. This trade represents a 38.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Richard D. Fain sold 16,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $311.02, for a total value of $4,976,320.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 150,291 shares in the company, valued at $46,743,506.82. This represents a 9.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 6.95% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Royal Caribbean Cruises

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Royal Caribbean Cruises during the second quarter worth $1,021,893,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Royal Caribbean Cruises during the first quarter worth about $358,614,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Royal Caribbean Cruises by 3.2% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,604,177 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,270,252,000 after purchasing an additional 929,414 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $172,488,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises by 21.8% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,991,079 shares of the company’s stock worth $614,487,000 after buying an additional 535,043 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.53% of the company’s stock.

About Royal Caribbean Cruises

(Get Free Report)

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. operates as a cruise company worldwide. The company operates cruises under the Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea Cruises brands, which comprise a range of itineraries. As of February 21, 2024, it operated 65 ships. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

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