Major cruise company Carnival Corporation & plc (CCL 3.09%) reported its third-quarter 2020 financial results today, along with a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on the subject, revealing the extent to which COVID-19 continues impacting its business activity.
A 10-Q filed with the SEC provides some additional Q3 numerical data. Revenue dropped from $6.53 billion during Q3 2019 to $31 million in Q3 2020, a plunge of slightly more than 99.5%. Adjusted net income for the quarter fell from $1.82 billion to a net loss of $1.69 billion. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) clocked in a loss of $2.19 per share compared to a positive $2.63 EPS in 2019.
According to reporting by Seeking Alpha, Carnival's results came in below Wall Street analyst expectations, missing by $0.38 in the case of adjusted EPS and $715.7 million for revenue. Other reports, such as one from Zacks Equity Research, aggregate different analyst predictions, resulting in a slight EPS beat ($2.19 loss versus $2.22 consensus) and a 69.1% miss below an approximate $100 million in predicted revenue.
Carnival's press release says it experienced a $770 million cash burn every month during Q3 but expects this to drop to $530 million monthly during Q4. It remarks these figures match its previous forecasts.
Image source: Carnival Corporation & plc.
While Carnival is clearly still navigating economic waters churned up by the hurricane of COVID-19's far-flung effects, the press release struck a hopeful note in several regards, too. The company still has strong liquidity reserves, while 2021 reservations "at the higher end of historical booking curves" show the company could potentially see a major upswing next year when pent-up demand for cruises bursts out following a hypothetical COVID-19 vaccine.
