Carnival shares steam ahead on record profit, dividend payments

(Sharecast News) - Shares in Carnival surged on Friday as the cruise line operator reinstated dividend payments and reported a jump in annual profits.

Pre-tax profit for the year to November 30 soared 45% to a record $2.77bn. Net income rose 44% to $2.76bn and 63% on an adjusted basis to $3.08bn. The company expects 2026 adjusted net income to grow by 12%.

Revenue rose 6.4% to $26.62bn - also a record and a quarterly payout of 15 cents a share was declared.

Chief Financial Officer David Bernstein said: "We have reached a meaningful turning point, surpassing the investment grade leverage metric threshold with a net debt to adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation ratio of 3.4x for 2025, representing a nearly one turn improvement from 2024 and successfully completing our $19bn refinancing plan in less than a year.

"These efforts strengthened our balance sheet by simplifying our capital structure, reducing interest expense and debt, optimizing our future debt maturities and enhancing our financial flexibility. In total, we have reduced our debt by over $10bn since our peak less than three years ago."

"These efforts and our strong continued operating performance, resulted in multiple credit rating upgrades throughout the year, culminating in reaching investment grade with Fitch and being one notch away with a positive outlook from S&P."

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com