28th Jun 2016 13:34
LONDON (Alliance News) - Cruise liner operator Carnival PLC on Tuesday narrowed its earnings per share guidance for its current year, as it reported a rise in pretax profit in its first half.
Carnival said its full-year adjusted earnings per share are now expected to be in the range of USD3.25 to USD3.35, narrowed from its previous guidance of USD3.20 to USD3.40, up from USD2.70 the previous year.
For the half year to end-May, Carnival reported a pretax profit of USD750 million, up from USD278 million the year before, on revenue of USD5.41 billion, up from USD5.26 billion.
Half-year EPS was USD0.88, up from USD0.45.
Carnival declared a dividend of USD0.35 per share for the second quarter, up from USD0.25 a year before, giving a half-year dividend of USD0.65, up from USD0.50 previously.
Carnival said that, at this time, its cumulative advance bookings for the remainder of 2016 are well ahead of the previous year, at slightly higher prices.
"Our strong second quarter demonstrates continued momentum as we again achieved a near doubling of adjusted earnings per share. Our ongoing effort to drive demand for our brands in excess of our measured capacity growth has led to increased revenues and helped maintain the mid-point of our full-year earnings guidance despite the recent currency movements and rises in fuel prices that combined represent a negative USD0.17 per share," said President and Chief Executive Officer Arnold Donald in a statement.
"This is shaping up to be another strong year for our company as we expect over 20 percent earnings growth and are approaching a nine percent return on invested capital. We have accelerated progress toward our stated goal of achieving the double digit return threshold and have accelerated distributions to shareholders," Donald added.
Shares in Carnival were trading in London up 2.5% at 3,343.00 pence Tuesday.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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