: Cruise stocks soar to pace the S&P 500, as Norwegian is upgraded to buy
Shares of cruise operators were the top-3 gainers in the S&P 500 SPX in afternoon trading Wednesday, with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. NCLH getting bullish backing from UBS on the back of upbeat bookings data. Norwegian’s stock shot up 11.0%, Royal Caribbean Group shares RCL leapt 10.8% and Carnival Corp.’s stock CCL ran up 10.1%. UBS analyst Robin Farley raised Norwegian’s rating to buy, after being at neutral since before the pandemic. Farley said the company’s “significant improvement” in bookings in the company’s third-quarter preview shows that Norwegian has caught up to the other cruise lines in occupancy, while still keeping prices above of 2019 levels. She now recommends investors be “overweight” the cruise sector, with a preference for Royal Caribbean due to its stronger occupancy recovery, record pricing for the rest of this year and for 2023 and a lower near-term debt burden. Farley said next is Norwegian, given its relatively greater concentration of domestic passengers and strong luxury-cruise pricing, while Carnival is at risk of underperforming given its greater European exposure at a time the U.S. dollar is strengthening.
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