Macquarie Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE:NCLH)

Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE:NCLH)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Macquarie in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $30.00 price target on the stock. Macquarie’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 10.31% from the stock’s previous close.

NCLH has been the topic of a number of other reports. Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Norwegian Cruise Line from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Norwegian Cruise Line from $19.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Argus upgraded shares of Norwegian Cruise Line from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Norwegian Cruise Line from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on Norwegian Cruise Line from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Norwegian Cruise Line currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $29.27.

Norwegian Cruise Line Price Performance

NCLH stock opened at $27.20 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $26.51 and a 200 day moving average of $22.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.35, a current ratio of 0.20 and a quick ratio of 0.17. The company has a market cap of $11.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.95, a PEG ratio of 0.24 and a beta of 2.64. Norwegian Cruise Line has a 1 year low of $14.69 and a 1 year high of $28.64.

Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE:NCLH) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. Norwegian Cruise Line had a return on equity of 99.31% and a net margin of 5.87%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.71 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Norwegian Cruise Line will post 1.51 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Mark Kempa sold 15,000 shares of Norwegian Cruise Line stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.86, for a total transaction of $417,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 253,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,059,333.96. The trade was a 5.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Faye L. Ashby sold 38,344 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.30, for a total value of $1,046,791.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 116,270 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,174,171. The trade was a 24.80 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 82,344 shares of company stock valued at $2,269,731 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NCLH. Baillie Gifford & Co. purchased a new position in shares of Norwegian Cruise Line in the third quarter worth $179,146,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its holdings in shares of Norwegian Cruise Line by 864.9% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,864,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,263,000 after purchasing an additional 3,464,100 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new position in shares of Norwegian Cruise Line during the fourth quarter valued at about $43,956,000. Columbus Hill Capital Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Norwegian Cruise Line in the second quarter worth about $23,479,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Norwegian Cruise Line by 32.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,568,122 shares of the company’s stock valued at $85,835,000 after buying an additional 1,129,770 shares during the last quarter. 69.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Norwegian Cruise Line Company Profile

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a cruise company in North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company operates through the Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands. It offers itineraries ranging from three days to a 180-days calling on various ports, including Scandinavia, Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Greek Isles, Alaska, Canada and New England, Hawaii, Asia, Tahiti and the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand, Africa, India, South America, the Panama Canal, and the Caribbean.