Amid “continued demand momentum” for the cruise industry, JPMorgan is bullish on Carnival . The bank upgraded the cruise liner’s shares to overweight from neutral in a Monday note. Analyst Matthew Boss also raised his price target to $16 from $11, implying more than 22% upside from Friday’s close. “CCL has an opportunity to drive improved brand clarity and pricing power with increased investment in advertising (vs. historical underinvestment vs peers) and given a smaller capacity growth profile, this provides a faster pathway for management to focus on de-levering the balance sheet,” Boss wrote. He added that CEO Josh Weinstein — who took over last year — emphasized during meetings with JPMorgan analysts that Carnival’s business strength is more balanced compared to its historical pre-pandemic trends. Boss underscored Weinstein’s comments that Carnival is “no longer riding the coattails of a post-pause pent-up.” “Multi-year, CCL has six private destinations around the Caribbean (~5.5M guests per year = rest of industry in aggregate) and is leveraging its land-based assets to drive further value creation into 2H25 with a (i) meaningful expansion of Half Moon Cay by building a pier to bring larger ships and improve shoreside guest experience,” said Boss. The analyst thinks Carnival’s new CEO and leadership changes present a promising opportunity for growth. The company has engaged in other efforts for improvement he noted, such as retiring more than 20 ships over the pandemic and repositioning ship assets to more accretive brands. “On the top-line, we came away confident in current trends with all three management teams,” Boss said. Shares have surged 62.4% year to date and more than 30% over the past 12 months. The stock was up 3.5% Monday during premarket trading. —CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
