Director dealings: Carnival chief in festive mood

Too busy at work to go on a cruise this holiday season? Then perhaps you might want to consider buying a cruise ship operator?

That is what Carnival's boss Arnold W. Donald appears to have done at the end of last year, or close enough for the average man on the street.

Donald bought 8,645 shares on the open market on 26 December at roughly $46.31 apiece, the company said in a statement, for a total transaction value of approximately $400,309.

On that same day, he purchased 12,950 more shares at a slightly higher price of approximately $46.51 at a cost of about $602,305 in total.

A week before, the company had posted record full-year earnings even as management cautioned that rougher seas might lie ahead, saying they now expected adjusted earnings per share for the first quarter of between $0.40 and $0.44, down from $0.52 for the same period in 2018.

That served to send the company's shares sharply lower to below their 200-week moving average and the 50% Fibonacci retracement of the uptrend that had been in place since mid-2014.

To keep in mind, in late November, Carnival's finance chief, James Heaney, had sounded a 'positive' note in a conference call with analysts.

Following that call, in a research report issued on 20 November, analysts at Credit Suisse analysts said: "We would expect caution to prevail and yield growth of around 1% seems likely (CSe 1.5%). The key downside risk stems for a combination of 6% industry capacity growth and a weaker consumer backdrop combining, although the 2019E PE of 12.8x seems to capture an element of that risk.

"Whilst 2019E guidance on 20 December will likely be cautious, we see a 2018-21E EPS CAGR of 12% vs a Nov-19E PE of 12.8x as a compelling combination on a 12-month view."

In that report, Credit Suisse upped its target price on Carnival's shares from 5,770p to 5,910p while sticking to its 'outperform' recommendation on the same.

Top Director Buys

Carnival (CCL)
Director name: Donald,Arnold W
Amount purchased: 9,660 @ $46.67
Value: $362,638.79

Carnival (CCL)
Director name: Donald,Arnold W
Amount purchased: 6,045 @ $46.31
Value: $225,180.33

Carnival (CCL)
Director name: Donald,Arnold W
Amount purchased: 2,200 @ $45.75
Value: $80,960.49

Carnival (CCL)
Director name: Donald,Arnold W
Amount purchased: 1,400 @ 4,629.00p
Value: £64,806.00

Carnival (CCL)
Director name: Donald,Arnold W
Amount purchased: 1,100 @ $46.30
Value: $40,966.89

Carnival (CCL)
Director name: Donald,Arnold W
Amount purchased: 640 @ $46.64
Value: $24,010.32

Prime People (PRP)
Director name: Macdonald,Robert J G
Amount purchased: 14,000 @ 74.00p
Value: £10,360.00

Carnival (CCL)
Director name: Donald,Arnold W
Amount purchased: 250 @ $46.66
Value: $9,383.05

Carnival (CCL)
Director name: Donald,Arnold W
Amount purchased: 200 @ $46.63
Value: $7,501.61

Carnival (CCL)
Director name: Donald,Arnold W
Amount purchased: 100 @ $46.28
Value: $3,722.65

Odyssean Investment Trust (OIT)
Director name: King,Richard
Amount purchased: 3,350 @ 96.48p
Value: £3,232.08

Avacta Group (AVCT)
Director name: Gardiner,Tony Peter
Amount purchased: 8,196 @ 30.50p
Value: £2,499.78

Record (REC)
Director name: Cullen,Steve
Amount purchased: 2,045 @ 31.72p
Value: £648.67

Record (REC)
Director name: Cullen,Steve
Amount purchased: 712 @ 31.63p
Value: £225.21

Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG)
Director name: Tomlinson,Humphrey
Amount purchased: 48 @ 316.00p
Value: £151.68

Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG)
Director name: Maddock,Steven
Amount purchased: 47 @ 316.00p
Value: £148.52