ATLANTA (Reuters) - Carnival Corp & Plc , the world's largest cruise operator, reported a 48 percent drop in quarterly profit on Friday as lower ticket prices hurt revenue, and its shares fell 3 percent as it forecast profit for the current quarter below current Wall Street estimates.
The company "confirmed that net yields will be positive" for the next year, said Robert LaFleur, an analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group. "The cost increases are probably higher than folks were looking for."
While cruise costs excluding fuel are expected to fall as much as 2 percent for 2010, Carnival said fuel costs for next year would likely rise $368 million over 2009, costing the company 46 cents a share.
Miami-based Carnival reported net income of $193 million, or 24 cents a diluted share, for the fourth quarter ended November 30, down from $371 million, or 47 cents a share, a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate for Carnival's fourth quarter results was 20 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Quarterly revenue fell about 3 percent to $3.2 billion from $3.3 billion a year earlier.
Carnival said it expects profit of 8 cents to 12 cents for the current first quarter, down from 33 cents for the year-ago quarter, and profit of $2.10 to $2.30 a share for the year ending in November 2010.
Analysts currently expect per-share profit of 17 cents for the first quarter and $2.28 for the full year.
Shares of Carnival were off $1 at $32.36 in morning New York Stock Exchange trading, while rival Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd
(Reporting by Karen Jacobs, editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Dave Zimmerman)
