Patton Fund Management Inc. Purchases New Holdings in Carnival Co. & plc (NYSE:CCL)

Patton Fund Management Inc. bought a new stake in Carnival Co. & plc (NYSE:CCL) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 229,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,728,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Carnival Co. & by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 175,943 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,384,000 after acquiring an additional 1,678 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Carnival Co. & by 72.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 2,870,760 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,052,000 after purchasing an additional 1,204,500 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. bought a new position in shares of Carnival Co. & during the third quarter worth about $1,140,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its stake in Carnival Co. & by 1.0% in the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 4,075,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $75,310,000 after purchasing an additional 39,491 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its holdings in shares of Carnival Co. & by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 264,728 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,892,000 after acquiring an additional 24,198 shares during the last quarter. 67.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CCL. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Carnival Co. & from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Macquarie upped their price target on shares of Carnival Co. & from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Carnival Co. & from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Carnival Co. & from $24.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Carnival Co. & from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $27.24.

Carnival Co. & Trading Up 8.0 %

Shares of CCL stock opened at $27.75 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $25.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.96, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 2.64. Carnival Co. & plc has a fifty-two week low of $13.78 and a fifty-two week high of $27.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.80.

Carnival Co. & (NYSE:CCL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, December 20th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.06. Carnival Co. & had a net margin of 7.66% and a return on equity of 24.13%. The company had revenue of $5.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.94 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.07) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Carnival Co. & plc will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Carnival Co. & Company Profile

Carnival Corp. engages in the operation of cruise ships. It operates through the following business segments: North America and Australia (NAA) Cruise, Europe and Asia (EA) Cruise Operations, Cruise Support, and Tour and Others. The North America and Australia (NAA) Cruise segment includes the Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, and Seabourn.