If you think that the stock market recovery for cruise line stocks has sailed away from you, look again. It's possible that you didn't miss the boat after all. Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) and its smaller peers are profitable again, and back at pre-pandemic performance levels in some key metrics. However, cruise line stocks have pulled back sharply from their recent summertime highs.
Carnival is now trading 35% below its July peak. A lot is going right for the cruising giant with more 90 ships across its various fleets. There are also legit reasons for the market's near-term concerns even after Carnival posted record revenue in its latest quarter. Let's look at the bullish case as well as the bearish knocks to see if Carnival stock is a good buy right now.
Carnival posted strong growth for its fiscal third quarter covering the busy summertime period ending in August. Revenue of $6.9 billion is an all-time high for Carnival, a better-than-expected 59% surge off admittedly depressed prior-year results. A 75% jump in ticket revenue -- accounting for two-thirds of its top-line results -- was only partially held back by a more modest 35% uptick in onboard revenue and everything else.
Source Fool.com