Cruise Stock Moves Higher on Beat-and-Raise

Shares of Carnival Corp (NYSE:CCL) are 3% higher in premarket trading, after a pre-earnings bull note. Mizuho initiated coverage with a  "buy" rating and a $21 price target -- 22% higher than Tuesday's close. The cruise name also raised its annual profit outlook amid strong demand and higher prices, after reporting a fiscal first-quarter profit beat.

While the cruise industry recovered in 2023 following its Covid-19 lows, CCL is still underperforming. The stock is 8.1% lower this year, though the shares of sector peers Royal Caribbean (RCL) and Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) are both higher for the same period. 

Mizuho is joining an already bullish brokerage bunch, with 16 of 19 analysts rating CCL a "buy" or better. It's also worth noting that the 94.55 million shares sold short account for 9.2% of Carnival stock's available float.

At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), the security's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 3.56 ranks higher than  99% of readings from the past year. This means long calls have been more popular than usual of late.