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Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Cruises Profit as Cost-Conscious Travelers Set Sail This Summer
(Bloomberg) -- America's Independence Day holiday is fast approaching, but instead of the usual beach barbecues and fireworks displays, many US travelers are setting sail for some exotic port. Struggling Downtowns Are Looking to Lure New Crowds NYC Commutes Resume After Midtown Bus Terminal Crash Chaos What Gothenburg Got Out of Congestion Pricing California Exempts Building Projects From Environmental Law The cruise industry has emerged as the popular option for cost-conscious vacationers looking for something more affordable than a typical trip. From January through May, Americans across income levels cut their spending on airlines, lodging and other forms of leisure as economic uncertainty rose and the US dollar weakened, but cruises kept growing, a Bank of America Institute study found. 'If you want to go visit a Caribbean island, the best value by far is doing it on a cruise ship,' Truist Securities analyst C. Patrick Scholes said. A record 19 million Americans are expected to go on a cruise this year, up 4.5% from 2024 and the third straight year of all-time high volume, according to projections from the American Automobile Association. Cruise Lines International Association projects that passenger numbers worldwide will increase 9% in 2025 and continue to climb through 2028. The growth is showing up in the bottom lines of cruise operators, with Carnival Corp. posting better than expected second-quarter earnings and raised its outlook for the second half last week. Since then, Carnival's shares are up 23% compared with a 3% gain in the S&P 500, and are trading at the highest level in four years. Meanwhile, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.'s stock has soared 18% and is at an all-time high, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. is up 14% and Viking Holdings Ltd. has gained 8.8%. 'Cruise companies were hit hard earlier in the year by perceived recession risk, and now represent maybe the most clear-cut buying opportunity given a more resilient macro environment,' Citigroup analyst James Hardiman wrote in a note to clients last month. Low Inflation Risk In addition, the industry isn't being hit hard by inflation, at least not yet. Cruises operate with a long reservation calendar, so many of these trips were books in 2024, according to Don Bucolo, co-founder of the travel blog 'Eat Sleep Cruise.' 'They have a very long booking curve, so they have a lot of visibility into next year,' Melius Research analyst Conor Cunningham said. In times of economic unease, cruises become attractive travel options because they're far cheaper than flying to your destination and staying at a hotel or Airbnb. For example, a three-day Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas this January costs $469 per person, while a three-night stay at the Atlantis resort at Paradise Island Bahamas costs $894. Passengers lined up on a Brooklyn dock on June 29 preparing to board a ship headed to the Bahamas agreed with the value proposition. 'It's not only your hotel, it's your transportation and your restaurants,' said Nicholas Picard. 'So it's just something that brings us back for more.' Picard, a nurse, said that the need to be careful financially weighed more on his travel plans this year than in the past. Another passenger, Amy Gravell, said that her seven-day stay at a resort in the Bahamas last year cost twice as much as the week-long cruise she was about to embark on. One appealing aspect is the up-front cost of traveling by boat. Passengers on a cruise have a clearer idea of how much they're going to spend since so much is included in the price, according to Gabriel Podbereski, a pilot from Miami who also creates content about cruises on Instagram and YouTube under the handle @thecruisevibe. Young Cruisers 'Many travelers find the pricing strategy on a cruise to return a higher value for their dollar, especially as the USD and CAD have seen a continued weakening,' said Gina Gabbard, chief strategy officer at First In Service, a travel experience company with advisers worldwide. The company has seen 'ongoing growth' in its cruise business, Gabbard said, and the trend is continuing. Part of the enthusiasm for the industry is being driven by increasing numbers of younger travelers who are opting for cruises. In addition, the business has recovered from the debacles of a decade ago that gave cruising a bad reputation, as captured in the recent Netflix documentary 'Trainwreck: Poop Cruise,' about a 2013 voyage on a Carnival ship where passengers went four days on a without power. 'If we go back 10 years ago, we see this industry went from self-hurt to self-help,' Truist's Scholes said. One corner of the market that isn't seeing a boost from the growth of cruise vacations is fuel demand. In part that's because cruise ships represent a small fraction of the marine fuel market, said Iain Mowat, principal analyst for refining and oil product markets at Wood Mackenzie. Cruise ships are also becoming more fuel efficient. Fuel consumption per available lower berth day decreased 6.3% compared to the prior year, Carnival reported in its 2025 Q2 earnings release. Improved fuel efficiency mitigates some of the increased demand for fuel, according to Alex Hodes, director of energy market strategy at StoneX. While the cruise industry is thriving in a tough economic environment, with the big operators trading at records, for investors the question is how long they can keep it up. With each quarter of growth, the comparisons get more difficult to beat, so they need to continue enticing new travelers for the trend to stick. 'Really, this was a stock sector, if we go back to last year, that really did extremely well,' Scholes said. 'They would beat every quarter and have big earnings raises. I think that the ability to have really large beat and raises is going to be pressured.' SNAP Cuts in Big Tax Bill Will Hit a Lot of Trump Voters Too America's Top Consumer-Sentiment Economist Is Worried How to Steal a House China's Homegrown Jewelry Superstar Pistachios Are Everywhere Right Now, Not Just in Dubai Chocolate ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. 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Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Home Depot Stock Edged Higher on Tuesday
Investors continued to signal their approval of the company's latest asset buy. This was buttressed by several positive analyst updates. 10 stocks we like better than Home Depot › On Tuesday, investors continued to digest Monday's news from Home Depot (NYSE: HD) that it had made a fresh acquisition. Meanwhile, several analysts felt compelled to issue updates on the stock, and these tended to be bullish. At the end of Tuesday's trading session, the company's share price was up by nearly 2% on a day when the S&P 500 index dipped by 0.1%. Home Depot kicked off the business week by announcing that it had acquired specialty building products distributor GMS via a subsidiary. The price is $110 per share in cash, valuing the equity at around $4.3 billion. Home Depot stated that the purchase will be financed through a mix of cash on hand and debt. The company said that taking on borrowings for it should not affect its goal to return to a leverage ratio of 2 by the end of its fiscal 2026. It added that owning GMS would be accretive to its non-GAAP (adjusted) per share earnings in the first year following the closing of the deal (which is expected by the end of the current fiscal year). Among the Home Depot watchers cheering the deal was Truist Securities' Scot Ciccarelli, who reiterated his buy recommendation on the company's stock and $417 price target. According to reports, Ciccarelli wrote that this is an effective move by the retailer to capture market share in the professional construction and home renovation space. He added that the buy is easily affordable with Home Depot's resources. The GMS deal seems sensible to me, too, as the professional segment is a large and important one for Home Depot -- not least because such customers (ideally) shop frequently and tend to have higher budgets than more casual consumers. If I were a Home Depot shareholder, I'd be pleased with this move. Before you buy stock in Home Depot, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Home Depot wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $722,181!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $968,402!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,069% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 177% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 30, 2025 Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Home Depot. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Home Depot Stock Edged Higher on Tuesday was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Globe and Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Why Home Depot Stock Edged Higher on Tuesday
On Tuesday, investors continued to digest Monday's news from Home Depot (NYSE: HD) that it had made a fresh acquisition. Meanwhile, several analysts felt compelled to issue updates on the stock, and these tended to be bullish. At the end of Tuesday's trading session, the company's share price was up by nearly 2% on a day when the S&P 500 index dipped by 0.1%. Shopping for large assets Home Depot kicked off the business week by announcing that it had acquired specialty building products distributor GMS via a subsidiary. The price is $110 per share in cash, valuing the equity at around $4.3 billion. Home Depot stated that the purchase will be financed through a mix of cash on hand and debt. The company said that taking on borrowings for it should not affect its goal to return to a leverage ratio of 2 by the end of its fiscal 2026. It added that owning GMS would be accretive to its non-GAAP (adjusted) per share earnings in the first year following the closing of the deal (which is expected by the end of the current fiscal year). Among the Home Depot watchers cheering the deal was Truist Securities' Scot Ciccarelli, who reiterated his buy recommendation on the company's stock and $417 price target. According to reports, Ciccarelli wrote that this is an effective move by the retailer to capture market share in the professional construction and home renovation space. He added that the buy is easily affordable with Home Depot's resources. A good deal The GMS deal seems sensible to me, too, as the professional segment is a large and important one for Home Depot -- not least because such customers (ideally) shop frequently and tend to have higher budgets than more casual consumers. If I were a Home Depot shareholder, I'd be pleased with this move. Should you invest $1,000 in Home Depot right now? Before you buy stock in Home Depot, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Home Depot wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $722,181!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $968,402!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is1,069% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to177%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 30, 2025
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Truist Lifts Etsy Price Target Amid Surge in User Growth
Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY) is one of the best consumer cyclical stocks to buy. On June 17, Truist Securities maintained its Buy rating on Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY), but increased its price target to $60 from $ price target rise follows after Truist Card Data revealed that Etsy's Marketplace revenue quarter-to-date through June 11 is exceeding forecasts. Truist also observed a surge in the number of monthly active users, which increased year-over-year and reached its highest level in 22 months. This indicates that the company's growth activities are having a favorable impact. Along with increased marketing effectiveness that has allowed Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY) to win more ad auctions, these efforts also include improvements in product quality, particularly discoverability and quality score. Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY) operates two-sided online marketplaces that link millions of creative customers and sellers globally. The company manages Reverb, Depop, and Elo7 in addition to its main marketplace, Etsy, which specializes in unique and creative products. While we acknowledge the potential of ETSY as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. Read More: and Disclosure: None.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Truist Lifts Etsy Price Target Amid Surge in User Growth
Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY) is one of the best consumer cyclical stocks to buy. On June 17, Truist Securities maintained its Buy rating on Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY), but increased its price target to $60 from $ price target rise follows after Truist Card Data revealed that Etsy's Marketplace revenue quarter-to-date through June 11 is exceeding forecasts. Truist also observed a surge in the number of monthly active users, which increased year-over-year and reached its highest level in 22 months. This indicates that the company's growth activities are having a favorable impact. Along with increased marketing effectiveness that has allowed Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY) to win more ad auctions, these efforts also include improvements in product quality, particularly discoverability and quality score. Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY) operates two-sided online marketplaces that link millions of creative customers and sellers globally. The company manages Reverb, Depop, and Elo7 in addition to its main marketplace, Etsy, which specializes in unique and creative products. While we acknowledge the potential of ETSY as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. Read More: and Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
