Despite Brexit-influenced challenges in share prices currently affecting the cruise industry, Carnival Corporation has reported a second quarter 2016 adjusted net income of $370 million. That is up from $193 million in the same period of 2015, marking a substantial 92 percent increase. Overall revenue clocked in at $3.7 billion for the quarter, similarly above the $3.6 billion recorded last year.
Carnival Corporation & plc President and CEO Arnold Donald stated, "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 to represent a negative $0.17 per share."
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Contributing to the positive earnings are increased berth yields, decreased cruise costs and changes in fuel prices and currency exchange rates. Recent developments across the corporation's brands that are expected to influence future economics are AIDA Cruises' new AIDAprima, Carnival Cruise Line's new Carnival Vista, Cunard Line's remastered Queen Mary 2 and Holland America Line's new Koningsdam and Denali square complex in Alaska, as well as Fathom's historic new voyages to Cuba.
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Donald also noted, "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. We recently raised our dividend by 17 percent to over $1 billion per year. Since October, we have repurchased nearly $1.9 billion in shares under our stock repurchase program. Yesterday, our Board of Directors approved our third $1 billion share repurchase authorization demonstrating confidence in our outlook and reinforcing our commitment to return value to shareholders."
Also looking ahead for 2016, cumulative advance cruise bookings are well above last year's and at slightly higher rates.
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