Norwegian shares sail higher after JPMorgan says the cruise stock’s a buy
Upgrade at night, sailor’s delight. Upgrade in morning, the stock’s soaring.
Shares of Norwegian Cruise Line sailed nearly 3% higher after JPMorgan upgraded the stock rating to overweight from neutral while maintaining a $30 price target.
The bank also doubled down on its overweight (or buy) rating for Royal Caribbean in the wake of a rough few weeks for travel stocks. Cruise lines shares have struggled to stay afloat in recent weeks as the outlook for consumer spending dims, but JPMorgan sees resilient sailing demand as reason to stay the course.
“The definitive message from management was zero detectable change in demand behavior to date despite ‘noise’ in the macro backdrop,” analyst Matthew Boss said in a report Monday. The stats back it up: a record 19 million Americans are expected to take a cruise this year, marking the third consecutive year of record cruise passenger volume.