Shares of Carnival Corporation & plc (CCL, CUK) traded higher today following the company's release of second-quarter results.Although second-quarter results exceeded expectations, we have lowered our full-year estimates, partially due to increased fuel prices going forward.While the quarterly results benefited from better-than-expected pricing on close-in bookings, we caution investors that this does not mean that pricing was strong. Rather, the pricing trends simply exceeded management's low expectations. The company is still cutting prices, relative to last year, in an attempt to boost occupancy.The shares have traded nearly 10% higher today by essentially delivering results that cleared an already lowered bar.Further, the fact that management lowered its full-year earnings outlook, despite the better-than-expected second quarter results, highlights the significant and unpredictable impact of fuel prices on the company's operations.Even though Carnival has taken steps to reduce ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - June 10, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: J.P. Morgan (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), Citibank (C), Royal Caribbean (RCL) and Carnival Corporation (CCL).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=4579.

Here are highlights from Tuesday's Analyst Blog:

A Stress-Test Do-Over?

The good thing is that, with the exception of the unemployment rate, things have not been worse than the more adverse scenario, and the banks have been able to raise the capital needed to withstand that scenario. The release of the original stress test

...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - April 24, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: The Coca-Cola Company (KO), Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. (ACOR), Royal Caribbean (RCL), United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) and Robert Half International Inc. (RHI).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=4579.

Here are highlights from Thursday's Analyst Blog:

Coca-Cola Gets Innocent

The Coca-Cola Company (KO) is investing £30 million ($44 million) for a minority stake of between 10% and 20% in Innocent Drinks, a U.K.-based maker of fruit smoothies. Innocent sells about 2 million smoothies a

...

With holiday season now on the distant horizon, can the yearly vacation be far from people’s minds? We checked in with Zacks senior travel & leisure industry analyst Sean P. Smith to see how things are going in the cruise line market these days.

Were there any major earnings surprises in the just-reported quarter among companies in your coverage?

Royal Caribbean (RCL) reported second-quarter earnings results that were in line with our estimate, while Carnival Cruises (CCL), (CUK) posted second-quarter results that exceeded our expectation by approximately 15%, or $0.07 per share. Despite these results, however, we reduced our full-year estimate for both companies, lowering our 2008 EPS estimate for Royal Caribbean by roughly 8% and our estimate for Carnival by approximately 13%.

Looking out to fiscal year 2009, we left our estimate for Royal Caribbean unchanged, and lowered our estimate for Carnival by approximately 15%.

What issues

...