It's finally been a good year to be a Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) investor. Shares of the world's largest cruise line operator have soared 131% this year. The industry's recovery from the COVID-19 crisis has been long, but it finally appears to be complete. Profitability is back for all of the major operators, and bookings for future sailings are now exceeding pre-pandemic records.

The market will get an important update when Carnival steps up with its fiscal fourth-quarter results on Thursday morning. Expectations are high, but the same can be said of the chances for a strong report. At least three major analysts have bumped their price targets higher on Carnival over the past week, a strong indication that some of the market pros that follow the company want to be more bullish heading into the telltale earnings release and subsequent earnings call later this week.

Carnival posted record revenue of $6.9 billion in its latest quarter three months ago. It also came through with its first profitable quarter since the end of fiscal 2019, ending a streak of 14 straight quarterly losses.

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Source Fool.com