Carnival Corporation & plc (CCL) — Fundamental Analysis & Key Financial Ratios

Kaplio's reading: Carnival Corporation & plc

Updated on October 31, 2026 · accounts published on September 29, 2026

A business back to solid profits, still carrying a heavy debt load

Carnival trades at a P/E of 12.6× over the last 12 months, 30 % below its sector median, while net debt equals 73 % of its share price.

• Is Carnival expensive or cheap? Carnival's P/E of 12.6× over the last 12 months is 30 % below the 17.9× median of its sector.
• How is the business doing? EPS grew 40 % over the last 12 months, and the operating margin of 16.0 % compares with a −5.3 % average for fiscal 2014-2025.
• How strong is the balance sheet, and can it withstand a recession? Net debt of $20.89 per share equals 73 % of the share price (fiscal 2025), and the Altman Z of 1.2 is in the danger zone.
• What to expect from the next earnings? Carnival reports on December 18, 2026; analysts expect EPS of $0.22 after 8 straight quarterly beats.

Is Carnival expensive or cheap?

Over the last 12 months Carnival trades at a P/E of 12.6×, 30 % below the 17.9× median of 209 consumer cyclical companies and 14 % below its own ten-year median of 14.7×. Over the past decade it traded at a lower P/E only 42 % of the time, inside a range of 2.0× to 24.9×. EV/sales of 2.3× in fiscal 2025 is less than half its ten-year average of 5.1×, and the free cash flow yield is 9.8 %. Peter Lynch warned that cyclicals look cheap when earnings run high. With EPS up 40 % in a year, part of this low multiple comes from profits that have only just recovered.

How is the business doing?

Revenue grew 6 % over the last 12 months while EPS rose 40 %, so profits are growing much faster than sales. The operating margin of 16.0 % over the last 12 months is close to the 16.8 % of fiscal 2025 and far above the −5.3 % average of fiscal 2014-2025. ROIC of 10.8 % beats the sector median of 9.4 % by 1.4 points. Even so, ROIC topped 10 % in only one of the last ten fiscal years and fell as low as −17.7 % in 2020. The five-year averages, an operating margin of −74 % and ROIC of 0.0 % for 2021-2025, show how recent this recovery is.

How strong is the balance sheet, and can it withstand a recession?

Consumer cyclical sales can drop sharply in a downturn, so this sector is judged on debt and liquidity more than on one year's earnings. Carnival fails all three tests. Net debt was 3.8× EBITDA in fiscal 2025, above the healthy ceiling of 3.0×. The current ratio is 0.27 over the last 12 months, against a threshold of 1.5. The Altman Z of 1.2 is below the 1.81 danger line. Net debt of $20.89 per share equals 73 % of the share price, and debt to equity is 1.77. A Piotroski score of 7 out of 9 points to improving fundamentals, and the dividend yields 1.6 %.

What to expect from the next earnings?

Carnival reports on December 18, 2026, and analysts expect EPS of $0.22 for the quarter. The company has beaten EPS estimates in each of the last 8 quarters. On September 29, 2026 it reported $1.43 against $1.35 expected, a 5.9 % beat. Over the last 30 days the 2026 EPS consensus rose 1.9 %, from $2.22 to $2.26 across 14 analysts, while the revenue estimate barely moved. Of 49 analysts, 30 recommend buying, 17 holding and 2 selling. After eight beats in a row, a miss would stand out more than one more small beat.

How this was prepared: the data comes from companies' official filings, collected by a professional provider, and from Kaplio's analysis engine (trailing-12-month ratios, 10 years of history and sector medians computed across US-listed companies). The text is written from that data alone, every figure is checked against it before publication, and it is reviewed when the company reports results. This is not investment advice.