Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.55 on January 13th

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, December 11th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of 0.55 per share on Monday, January 13th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th.

Royal Caribbean Cruises has a payout ratio of 15.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Royal Caribbean Cruises to earn $14.42 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 15.3%.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Price Performance

Shares of RCL opened at $240.30 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $64.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 2.60. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $228.71 and its 200-day moving average is $186.56. Royal Caribbean Cruises has a one year low of $113.10 and a one year high of $258.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.63, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a current ratio of 0.19.

Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE:RCL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $5.20 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $4.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.89 billion. Royal Caribbean Cruises had a net margin of 16.21% and a return on equity of 52.92%. Royal Caribbean Cruises’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.85 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Royal Caribbean Cruises will post 11.65 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Arne Alexander Wilhelmsen sold 139,353 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.89, for a total value of $33,150,685.17. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 18,167,507 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,321,868,240.23. This represents a 0.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Richard D. Fain sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.02, for a total transaction of $5,250,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 204,521 shares in the company, valued at $42,953,500.42. The trade was a 10.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 404,332 shares of company stock worth $94,299,521 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 7.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on RCL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Royal Caribbean Cruises from $213.00 to $243.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays upped their price objective on Royal Caribbean Cruises from $245.00 to $287.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Royal Caribbean Cruises from $250.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $290.00 price target for the company. Finally, Macquarie lifted their price objective on shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises from $189.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Royal Caribbean Cruises presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $239.75.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Company Profile

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. operates as a cruise company worldwide. The company operates cruises under the Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea Cruises brands, which comprise a range of itineraries. As of February 21, 2024, it operated 65 ships. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.