Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Increases Stock Position in Carnival Co. & plc (NYSE:CCL)

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Carnival Co. & plc (NYSE:CCL) by 2,259.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 839,014 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 803,453 shares during the quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC owned approximately 0.07% of Carnival Co. & worth $20,908,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Carnival Co. & by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 175,943 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,384,000 after buying an additional 1,678 shares during the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its position in Carnival Co. & by 153.4% in the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 336,502 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,386,000 after purchasing an additional 203,710 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in Carnival Co. & by 26.6% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 86,837 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,164,000 after purchasing an additional 18,269 shares during the last quarter. Convergence Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in Carnival Co. & by 54.4% in the 4th quarter. Convergence Investment Partners LLC now owns 40,202 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,002,000 after purchasing an additional 14,165 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Carnival Co. & during the 4th quarter valued at $59,486,000. 67.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Carnival Co. & from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $25.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Carnival Co. & from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Carnival Co. & from $32.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Northcoast Research assumed coverage on Carnival Co. & in a research report on Friday. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Carnival Co. & from $31.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Carnival Co. & presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.53.

Carnival Co. & Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of CCL opened at $18.61 on Friday. Carnival Co. & plc has a 1-year low of $13.78 and a 1-year high of $28.72. The company has a market capitalization of $21.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 2.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.80, a current ratio of 0.29 and a quick ratio of 0.25. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $20.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.08.

Carnival Co. & (NYSE:CCL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, March 21st. The company reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $5.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.74 billion. Carnival Co. & had a net margin of 7.66% and a return on equity of 24.13%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.14) EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Carnival Co. & plc will post 1.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Carnival Co. &

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.