Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) reported a top- and bottom-line miss for the third quarter and provided a forecast that did not sway investor optimism.
Shares of the company were down nearly 13% in early open market trading on Tuesday amid broader market declines as the AI-driven tech rally fizzled out; peers Royal Caribbean (RCL), Carnival Corporation (CCL), and Viking Holdings (VIK) were also in the red in sympathy.
For Q4, the cruise operator sees adjusted earnings per share of about $0.27, below the Bloomberg consensus estimate of $0.30 per share, and adjusted EBITDA of about $555M vs. the estimate of $566.9M.
For 2025, Norwegian reiterated its guidance for adjusted EBITDA at $2.72B (est. $2.74B) and adjusted net income of about $1.045B. Net yield is expected to increase about 2.4-2.5% year-over-year. Adjusted net cruise cost excluding fuel per capacity day is expected to grow ~0.75% on a constant currency basis.
In Q3, the company carried 803,268 passengers, down 1.1% from last year and below the estimate of 824,097. Passenger cruise days rose 4.7% to 6.83M, slightly better than the estimate of 6.76M.
Commenting on the results, Barclays analyst Brandt Montour said Norwegian’s report was “generally underwhelming,” but against lowered expectations given a softer-than-usual report from peer Royal Caribbean.
Stifel analyst Steven Wieczynski said that with investors already nervous after RCL’s results last week, NCLH’s results and guidance “won’t do anything to change the current negative narrative that is hovering over the cruise industry.”
Net income for the quarter ended September 30 fell to $419.3M, compared to $474.9M in the same period last year.
On a per-share basis, the company earned 86 cents, widely missing the average analyst expectation of a $1.11 profit per share.
Revenue rose nearly 5% to $2.94B but was below the consensus estimate of $3.02B.