Royal Caribbean Cruises Upgraded by Zacks (RCL)

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. was upgraded by Zacks from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report issued on Monday. The firm currently has a $28.00 target price on the stock.

Zacks‘ analyst wrote, “Royal Caribbean’s first-quarter 2012 bottom line outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The company is showing efficiency in countering fuel costs as well as increasing its exposure to countries like China in order to tap the developing cruise travel market. However, following the recent sinking of its peer Carnival’s ship, we are cautious about the sector in the near term. This disaster shook the cruisers’ confidence thereby sharply reducing the booking volume especially in Europe. However, we believe, much of the shock from the Costa Concordia tragedy is reflected on the stock at the current level. Bookings for fourth-quarter 2012 and all of 2013 assure a rebound. Hence, we upgrade the stock from Underperform to Neutral.”

Royal Caribbean Cruises traded up 0.71 percent on Monday, hitting $27.02. Royal Caribbean Cruises has a 1-year low of $18.70 and a 1-year high of $42.11. The company has a market cap of $5.886 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.24.

Royal Caribbean Cruises last released its earnings data on Friday, April 20th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.06. Royal Caribbean Cruises’s revenue was up 9.7 percent compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Royal Caribbean Cruises will post $1.68 EPS next quarter.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on RCL. Analysts at Barclays Capital  reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises in a research note to investors on Monday, April 23rd. Separately, analysts at Nomura reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises in a research note to investors on Friday, April 20th. Finally, analysts at Longbow Research initiated coverage on shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises in a research note to investors on Thursday, March 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $36.00 price target on the stock.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (Royal Caribbean) is a cruise company. As of December 31, 2010, the Company operated 40 ships in the cruise vacation industry with approximately 92,300 berths.